


Bones 'Reaper' McCoy

by AuraWhiteFox



Category: Doom (2005), Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Crossover, Kissage, Language, M/M, Multi, Reaper!, Romance, Threesome, Violence, blah blah kick ass stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-18
Updated: 2011-11-18
Packaged: 2017-10-26 06:15:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuraWhiteFox/pseuds/AuraWhiteFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones was just hoping for a nice relaxing shore leave, instead he has to race back to the one hell he'd hope to never go back to, Olduavi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bones 'Reaper' McCoy

Bones grumbled to himself as he dropped a box of medical supplies onto his desk. Not really up to caring about how hard it had fallen or how delicate the instruments inside were.

Usually he wouldn’t be the one doing this sort of task. Either some random redshirt or one of his lower assistants would have been the one who would organize the medical supply boxes. But not this time, because apparently Captain Asshole had come to the conclusion that he needed to be punished like some kind of misbehaved child.

Just because he had made a few people cry was no reason for this laborious and boring task, not to mention that they had been lower ensign! It wasn’t his fault that they were sensitive to a stern talking to.

Besides, everyone knew that he wasn’t the nicest man around and his bedside manner could use some polishing, but he hadn’t said anything too nasty to them.

In his opinion the ensigns had deserved the tongue thrashing he had given them. They had gotten themselves and several others in their vicinity injured because they hadn’t followed safety and security procedures, not to mention they were lazing on the safety gear.

The only reason he had been that hard on them was because he cared. If they become frightened of him and his hyposprays, the less likely they were to get hurt, putting in the extra time to double check everything.

All in all, it wasn’t fair that Captain Kirk had revoked his shore leave and left him here alone to sort through all the new shipments of medical materials, it really wasn’t.

And that green-blooded hobgoblin had agreed with the captain! Agreed with his punishment, which shouldn’t really surprise him, of course Spock would have agreed, there hasn’t been a single time where Spock had objected to Bones getting punished. If Bones didn’t know any better, he would say that the pointy eared bastard enjoyed seeing the doctor’s pain and humiliation, the kinky fucker.

Bones sighed as he finished moving the supplies boxes from the hover cart and into his office. Now all he needed to do was sort through them and put them in their respected places, shouldn’t take any longer then about five to eight hours. That would be if he didn’t take a single break and worked hard straight through, what really sucked was that he couldn’t use antigrav, those wondrous Anti-gravity repellers which would have cut the time to two hours at the most.

Spock’s idea of course. That…green-blooded hobgoblin.

“Bullshit.” Bones couldn’t help but breathe out in a rush of hot air.

No way in hell was he going to do that. It was unfair and cruel and just the edge of pain. He wasn’t tired of course, but the idea of spending the next several hours repeating the same boring task was already making his muscles twitch in boredom.

Unless…

Bones looked around him to make sure no one was around, despite knowing that only a ghost crew was on the ship right now and most of them were either in the cafeteria or the engine room, after all, one could never be too careful.

Still…he had promised himself that he would never ever resort to that, and here he was considering it for something so insignificant and meager.

But he really wanted to get this done…and the sooner he did it the sooner he could get off the ship for what was left of shore leave.

The next scheduled shore leave wasn’t for another ten months. He needed to get out.

 _‘First things first, make sure that the security cameras suffer a short burst of interference. Hmm…how about 90 seconds? Yes that’ll be enough.’_

With his mind made up, Bones walked to his computer and leaned down. A few key strokes later the two security cameras that resided in the medical bay were off-line for the next 90 seconds.

His hacker skills were really going to waste. He would need to indulge it more often so he wouldn’t get too rusty. With the way his life was going at the moment he would be surprised if the moment he actually did lose some of his skills was the moment when he needed them the most.

Not wasting a second, Leonard moved to get the task done, and he didn’t just move, he moved.

To the human eye he would have looked slightly blurred at the corners, he was still visible but he was going at least five times faster than a normal human could move. His muscles burned and stretched wonderfully after so long of a restraint, he had almost forgotten the feeling of moving so freely.

In about 87 seconds all of the boxes were empty and the equipment was all placed correctly in his office and the surrounding cupboards.

Just before the cameras were about to go back on-line Leonard slowed down to a more acceptable speed, it wouldn’t do to get caught on tape just as he finished his task.

 _‘And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it’s done.’_

Bones let a small smirk grace his face for a second before settling into his more familiar scowl as he stood in the cleared out office; he would deal with the empty boxes later. Maybe even chuck them at Spock’s and Jim’s head, now that would be satisfying.

Bones checked the small clock on his desk, 14:00. Good, he still had plenty of time to go to his quarters for a quick shower before heading down onto the planet for some good R&R. The shore leave ended tomorrow night so Bone’s didn’t have a lot of time to relax, but he did have tonight and some time tomorrow to kill before he beamed back aboard the ship to resume duties.

He knew that he needed to avoid Jim and his green-blooded shadow while he was done there. If Jim saw him he’d automatically get suspicious and it wouldn’t matter that Bones had completed the task that Jim gave him. It was the time frame that he’d done it in that would set alarm bells ringing in the Captain’s head.

So…just avoid all the clubs and any places that Spock would most likely drag their Captain off too.

That would be easy enough, he just had to stay away from where there would no doubt be fireworks and bar brawls.

Bone’s whistled as he soaped up and dressed down. The planet that they had decided to spend shore leave at wasn’t a big tourist trap, but from what Bone’s had heard from the crew, it was a nice, passive planet and the inhabitants seemed friendly enough.

They seemed to be tickled pink actually over having the Enterprise here for awhile. Bones hated to admit it, but coming here would no doubt give the planet status with other nearby planets. No doubt trade would go up for them as soon as the USS Enterprise left to go back on its mission.

Bones dressed in a pair of well worn jeans and a casual dark blue shirt. Not too dressy, but certainly not sloppy either. He decided to leave off shaving. He managed to grow a little bit of scruff the last few days and hadn’t had the time to shave or to even sleep that much since he’d been doing a lot of overwork in the infirmary. The ensigns just seemed to attract injures somehow, almost as much as the Captain did actually.

Besides, Chapel said that the slight scruff made him look dashingly handsome and who was he to argue with his head nurse? She was a smart lady after all.

So, after making sure that he was presentable and that he didn’t have anything else pressing to do, he made his way to the transport room.

After making sure that the ensign on duty would keep his mouth shut to Scotty, who was still onboard, that he was going planet-side, he beamed down.

He truly hated the feeling of the transport. Hated it with the hate of a thousand suns and hundreds of supernovas.

It brought back too many bad memories that were better left buried in the deepest part of his mind and heart.

Arriving on the planet, he took the time to check out his surroundings. The ensign had dropped him off a ways from the nearby town, which was a sure way to insure that no one saw his arrival. Perfect.

‘So...what first? Hmm, let’s see what they have, maybe they have some coffee? Or at least a good enough substitute? I’ll save the booze for later in the day.’ With that thought in mind, Bones began to walk on the slope that he’d been transported on.

Looking towards his left he saw an ocean. So this was more of a seaport town.

Huh…too bad he didn’t bring his swimming trunks. Not that he owned any to begin with, but it’s the thought of the matter.

Bones felt his muscles begin to relax as the tension bled out. Deciding on a detour for the moment, he turned away from the town and moved towards the beach instead.

He saw a few crew members a little further down along the beach, but there wasn’t anyone near him enough to recognize him.

Looking off into the odd green sea, Bones sat down on the grassy part of the slope, just before the grass turned into sand, which was a deep blue color with a mixture of lime green and pale purple flaked randomly around.

Bones snorted in amusement, blue sand and a green ocean. Sometimes he wondered what the hell had compelled him to join Starfleet.

But Bones knew the real truth in his heart. While he may have enlisted on a whim, the reason for staying was a whole other matter.

The reason being a pair of bright blue eyes and cocky attitude.

Leaning backwards until his back hit the ground, Dr. McCoy pondered on the last 2 years that had been his life.

After the Nero/Vulcan incident, Starfleet had been in a total wreck. There were many miscommunications with other members of the Federation, not to mention the now homeless Vulcans, where once there were millions of them, now there were only a few thousand left, if that. It had taken a while for them to find a suitable planet to repopulate, but once they found one they had tried settling as calmly as possible on the planet that had similar atmosphere as Vulcan, but was clearly not the same planet. Starfleet had been with them every step of the way though.

Jim had come home a hero, but it had still been a sobering homecoming. So many lives had been lost and so many that needed to be rebuilt. Nero may not have finished his quest for vengeance, but he had certainly left a lasting impression.

Sometimes, Bones couldn’t help but wish he had come face to face with the bastard and given him a piece of his mind, not to mention a fist to his face.

Bones hadn’t been surprised when Jim was made Captain of the USS Enterprise, nor was he surprised when Spock decided to show up at the last minute to offer himself as Second-in-Command. It was obvious that those two had destiny on their side. Something that Bones knew wasn’t something easily side stepped.

It had been incredibly lucky that they had all been assigned on the Enterprise together, although he had no doubt that Admiral Pike had something to do with that. Bones knew that there were quite a few ensign and other higher officers that hadn’t even come close to finishing their degrees, yet found themselves with positions already on a starship.

It had been 2 years since they had began their 5 year trip out into the unknown part of space. They’ve managed to bring at least 6 planets into the federation, but they’ve also made a shit load of enemies as well. Well, to be more specific, JIM had made enemies.

That boy was seriously some kind of trouble magnet, it was like he had a giant sign on his forehead that said. “Come try to kill me! It’s FUN!”

And of course it was Dr. McCoy’s job to fix him up every single time he came back coded and bleeding to death.

If it was in any way possible, Bones probably would have died long ago from exhaustion, fear and pure shock at the amount of damage his friend could get into.

In those two years a lot had happened. It wasn’t just about the new planets and new species. A lot had happened to the crew too. They’ve lost a lot of members onboard, but thankfully none of the Alpha crew.  
Sometimes Bones couldn’t help but feel a moment’s regret at how he viewed the lives of the crewmembers. He wasn’t close with anyone except the Alpha crew and the members of the medical team, and even then it was less then what everyone else was experiencing.

Chekov and Sulu had finally stopped dancing around the attraction between them and had become a couple about a year ago. It was sickly sweet watching those two when they were off duty. Sulu really doted on the younger man and Chekov practically worshiped the ground that Sulu walked on.

Bones had to pay Jim over five credits because he had lost the bet on those two. He would have thought that  
Chekov’s age would have stopped Sulu from jumping the smaller Russian’s bones for at least another ten months. Apparently he had not factored in Chekov’s pouty lips and puppy eyes.

They’d also had a small celebration about six months ago when Scotty acclaimed his undying love to Lt. Uhura and asked her to marry him in a fit of drunken love.

It was lucky that Uhura and Spock had broken it off sixteen months ago or they might have needed to look for a new chief engineer. Uhura had accepted the proposal to everyone’s shock and amazement and they had Jim marry them off right away.

They were still in the honeymoon stage and Bones was getting a bit sick of having to restock condoms for those two. Seriously, they were having more sex than half the crewmembers combined.

A small smile grew on his face. He was truly happy that so many of the crew had found happiness. It was amazing what two years can accomplish. There were several more crewmembers that had gotten married by Jim and not a few affairs were floating around. There was also hardly any domestics either, mostly because everyone was all so close to each other, although it might also have something to do with Spock. The Vulcan had once stepped in between a domestic and everyone was so traumatized by the experience that now everyone got along to avoid that situation, ever again.

Even though Bones and Jim liked to laugh about the situation over drinks.

The smile faded off into a frown as his thoughts turned on another unlikely pair.

Jim and Spock, Captain James Tiberius Kirk and Commander S’chn T’gai Spock.

Anyone could see that those two had been dancing around each other since they had first meet. At first it had been a mutual dislike for each other and then slowly a frail friendship that turned into an almost visible sexual tension. It had only gotten worse since Spock had broken things off with Uhura, now both of them were unattached and available, and yet they persist and avoiding the situation and stayed friends and co-workers, even when the sexual tension got so thick that you could literally choke on it.

If those two didn’t fuck soon, Bones was going to lock them both up in a room with a crate full of lube, condoms and sex pollen for a week.

Bones let out a sigh before getting up to head towards the town. He looked out onto the water one last time, as if trying to memorize the scene before turning back around.

He needed a drink.

 

\--

 

“A glass of Idalberry juice please.”

After the waitress left, Bones let out a content sigh. He had managed to find a small café of sorts after walking into the town. He’d seen a few ensigns around, but thankfully no one he really knew personally.

Sometimes Bones wondered just why he was here in the first place, on a spaceship light years away from Earth. Joining Starfleet was the last thing he had expected to do all those years ago.

When he had created the persona of Leonard H. McCoy twelve years ago Bones had no idea that his life would spiral down and up so fantastically.

After he’d left behind his persona of Krille the notorious assassin, he’d stuck with small time personas.  
Never giving much substance to any of the lives he lived. It was only as he forged the papers for one Mr. McCoy did he finally decided to live the life he made for himself, and hadn’t that gone down the shithole.

After he’d gotten the life of Leonard McCoy to speed he had decided to go back to college and try something new, so he’d gone to a University in Georgia to get his Doctrine degree. He had been wavering between becoming a trauma surgeon or another specialized field.

He’d only been at the university for a few months before he met Joyance, a strong willed woman who quickly became a good friend of his. He couldn’t help but note that she reminded him of Sam in the way she’d scold him continuously when he stayed up to work on a term paper or when he drank too much coffee before a exam.  
Not that the coffee worked but he still enjoyed the taste of it.

The reason that she was attending that specific medical university was because she was studying to become a pediatrician and wanted to remain local because she’d grown up in the area.

They had a few classes together and that was how they meet, well they’d meet over a team project actually.  
They’d both spent their times bitching at the other students that weren’t putting much effort in their papers and since it was a group project both she and him had laid the law on them.

It had been nice, finding someone who wasn’t imitated by him and seemed to like him, even after she learned of his impressive vocabulary of swears and curses, in five different languages.

Because they became so close many of their fellow classmates assumed that they were together as a couple which couldn’t be farther away from the truth. They liked each other, but not sexual, at least not on Leonard’s part. Joyance was too much like a sister for him to feel any kind of romantic feelings and Joyance…

Joyance had been seeing someone, some man who Leonard had never met before. Leonard didn’t know if the guy was also a student or not, Joyance wouldn’t tell him where she meet him, only that she was happy.

He tried not to question why Joyance didn’t want him to meet the guy she was dating. He justified it to himself that Joyance was having such a good time that she’d forgotten to introduce him or that she didn’t want him to intimidate her boyfriend into running away. It seems that Leonard had a rather interesting effect on all the guys that showed interest in Joyance. They all seemed to be afraid of him.

Must be some left over brother vibe.

But on the day that Joyance came over to his small apartment crying hysterically with a huge bruise on her face told him a different story of why she hadn’t wanted him to met her lover.

It had taken Leonard more control then he was tempted to admit, to not storm out then and there to find the  
SOB that hurt her and give him a sampling of Reaper. He even had a bow knife that would do the trick.

But Joyance had been sobbing uncontrollably and clinging to him. He hadn’t the heart to break her hold and steered her to his couch instead and held her.

That was when she had told him another piece of the puzzle that, sad to say, almost broke his self control.

For a moment he’d almost lost Leonard and become John Reaper Grim again, but he controlled his instincts at the last second when Joyance had hugged him to her, almost desperately.

She was two months pregnant and when she told her ex-lover about it he’d beaten her. She had managed to run before he could do much worse than a bruised face and sprained wrist.

It seemed that the so called father of the baby didn’t want anything to do with her or her unborn child.

So he had stayed and comforted her as much as he was able. Despite the fact that he wanted nothing more than  
to hunt down the man who had done this to his friend and go back to his roots, to show this sad excuse of wasted human flesh that you could keep someone alive long after you skinned every inch of skin from his body.

He was told that the father-he still has no idea who the bastard was-had left the state and moved towards the west coast, he hadn’t given her any other information than that, only to stay the hell away from him.

He didn’t know how to make it better, but seeing her like that made him think of what he’d do if it had been  
Sam coming to him with this problem, not knowing what to do, he did what he’d do then, with some differences of course.

As he held her he told Joyance that even though he wasn’t romantically inclined towards her, he would be honored to marry her and help raise the baby.

He wouldn’t have proposed marriage to Sam of course, but Joyance was of older traditions and her family wouldn’t accept anything less. They’d make her marry some guy she didn’t know of their choice.

Joyance had agreed rather quickly and 7 short months latter, Joanna McCoy was born. Leonard had loved her at first sight, as he held her small frail body in his hands minutes after Joyance had given birth to her he had sworn then and there that this little girl wouldn’t want for anything while he had the power to give it to her.

It had been surprisingly difficult for Leonard, who never had to support anyone other than himself for years.

He really wanted to finish his degree, being a doctor meant that he’d have a better income, so he decided to continue with his schooling, but doubled up on classes in order to finish faster. As soon as he got a stable job the better it would be to take care of Joyance and Joanna.

He didn’t consider the repercussions exactly of what he was doing or to be more truthfully, he didn’t want to. He knew that he’d only get a few short years with them because, while they aged, he didn’t.

He hadn’t told Joyance about who he really was…or more correctly, what he really was. He knew that she’d fear him, as much as he cared for Joyance, she was a very superstitious woman and had been raised in a catholic family, so he didn’t think she’d take what he was that well.

Things had been fine at first, he’d finished his degree in rapid time and gotten a slightly cushioned job, but it all went downhill pretty fast after that. Joanna had been three when Leonard began to notice a strange scent coming from Joyance. It hadn’t taken him long to figure it out though, musk, a male scent.  
One that wasn’t his.

Leonard hadn’t been too upset, despite being married, neither Joyance or himself have tried to have sex together. They were too close for that, if that made sense. So he didn’t begrudge Joyance her lovers. Not that Leonard took any, he didn’t have the time even if he had been interested in anyone.

He had been a tad worried though. Joyance didn’t have the best track record when it came to men and Joyance was the stubborn type, like Sam, so she wouldn’t admit anything was wrong until it was too late.

More and more Joyance began to leave the house at odd hours of the day and night. After she gave birth to Joanna, she had come to the decision to become a stay at home mom instead of going back to the university to finish her degree. Leonard had just about enough money to support them until he graduated himself. Although they didn’t live in the lap of luxury for awhile. Something, he thought, Joyance resented him for, even if he had no control over it.

But ever since Leonard gotten a job at the hospital she’d begun to go out more and more with people that  
Leonard had never met. It was always last minute too, so Leonard had to either call a last minute babysitter for Joanna or call work to tell them he couldn’t make it. He never told the hospital just why he had so many missed days, although he knew the rumors that were floating around was getting pretty close to the truth.

It was on Joanna’s 5th birthday that everything came to head.

Leonard had been expecting it to a degree for a while now. Even with her busy social life, Joyance had begun to notice that he hadn’t changed much in appearance or manner since they had meet almost 7 years ago, not to mention she was bitter. Joyance had made the mistake of falling in love with Leonard when he’d asked her to marry him, but since Leonard hadn’t made any moves to begin a more intimate relationship, it had caused her to feel loathing over the fact that he was still as young looking as when they first met while she was growing fatter around the waist and becoming shallow skinned. Both were caused by her increased drinking habit, which she ignored.

Joyance packed up her bags and took as much valuables as she could carry and left the divorce papers on the kitchen table for all to see, just as Leonard placed Joanna’s birthday cake on the picnic table outside, surrounded by neighbors and friends.

 

\---

 

Things got a bit more complicated after that. Joyance’s parents had friends in high places so that when the time came, Leonard hadn’t even been allowed visitation rights, since Joanna wasn’t his child by blood.

He had fought hard and spent every single dime he had saved up over the decades, but it hadn’t been enough.  
Joyance’s resentment and her overbearing parents had made sure that Leonard wouldn’t be able to spend even a minute with his adopted daughter, at least not until Joanna was 18 and can tell her mother and grandparents to go to hell.

Still…Leonard had over ten years before that could happen.

At least he had managed to get the courts to allow him to send letters and to be able to phone Joanna on her birthday.

Leonard hadn’t known what to do after all that. He’d still been in Georgia and everyone knew about the bitter divorce between himself and Joyance and of course everyone took the mother’s side, even when she was visibly dating a complete scumbag right after the papers were finalized.

Leonard couldn’t stay in that town or that hospital. It was hard for him because Joanna had been living so close to him since she lived in the same town, but since he wasn’t allowed to get within 30 feet of her, he couldn’t even walk over even say hello or good morning, or to ask her how her day was at school.

So in the end, he hadn’t had much choice, so he left. Packed up all his bags, the stuff that Joyance hadn’t taken, and took the first bus that was leaving Georgia.

He wandered for a while, going to different states and visiting every bar he could find. He tried, and failed of course, to drink enough alcohol that it would affect him for more than an hour. But his metabolism was too fast and would burn the alcohol just as it hit his system, making the effort to becoming drunk useless.

More than once he’d wondered if he should just drop the persona of Leonard McCoy and make up another identity, start fresh. But the idea of never having any contact with Joanna was enough to stop him. He knew that he would need to change his identity within the next twenty years or so but there was no need to rush it. Even if the only contact he got from the little girl he’d promised the world too was in letters and sent texts he could live with that. It would have to be enough.

Once he’d gotten out of the southern state and realized that the sullied name of Dr. McCoy wouldn’t haunt his every step, he begin to think about applying for another hospital, or even a clinic. Now that he no longer had anyone to return home to, he could work more hours and not get yelled at when he got back to his small rented apartment after spending 48 hours at work. That was the longest he had allowed himself to work before at the hospital in Georgia, the nurses and other doctors had called him a workaholic and an insomniac, but it was really because he could go longer without sleep or stopping then they could. He remembered that Joyance hadn’t liked that at all, if only because she was stuck at home watching Joanna instead of partying out at some country club with her floozy friends.

As soon as he made this decision, he made a quick stop at some nameless bar in Idaho, just to have one more quick drink before heading to Washington or Nevada and seeing if there was any work to be had there.

That had been the very first time he’d meet James T. Kirk, although to be fair, Jim hadn’t had any time to notice him sitting at the far end of the bar. He’d been too busy fighting a bunch of Star Fleet cadets and losing spectacularly.

Leonard had stayed in his small corner of the room and watched with interest as the famed Christopher Pike came marching in and took the situation in hand with ease.

Leonard had eavesdropped shamelessly as Pike tried to convince the young beaten up man to join in Star Fleet, when the kid had declined Pike had dared the kid to do better than his father, whoever that was, before leaving.

Leonard sat on the rickety stool and sipped an old fashioned beer as he watched the kid sit there in thought long after Pike had left. He was playing with a small starship shaped salt shaker, just turning it in his hands over and over, lost in thought.

Leonard didn’t know how to explain it, but he knew instinctively that the boy would join Star Fleet and prove to everyone that he was more than his father’s son. Leonard also couldn’t explain the feeling that welled up inside of him at that moment, the feeling of need. Like he needed to follow this young man, no matter where the choice would take him.

He deliberately didn’t try to think too hard about the feeling, because if he did, he knew that he would have to acknowledge that part of himself, and he’d only just gotten Reaper settled inside of him. He didn’t need another identity crisis so soon.

That very night, Leonard had signed up for the shuttle heading for Star Fleet Academy. He’d be taking the  
Medical cadet route, but since he was already a qualified doctor he wouldn’t need to take many classes medically wise, but he still had a lot to learn, considering he’d been avoiding anything to do with space since Olduvai.

He was around two hundred years old and after all this time he was going back to school. It made him feel old in a way that nothing else could.

Everything after that had gone surprisingly smoothly. He had somehow managed to befriend Kirk on the shuttle and spent the next three years alternating between going to class, working at a clinic and getting dragged off by Jim to random bars and clubs.

Leonard made sure to send his daughter at least three letters a month, if he was lucky then he would receive two every few months, but considering that she was still young he didn’t let it bother him. Any letter he got from Joanna made him happy.

Of course, that’s when everything went to hell, something typical of his life nowadays. It seemed anytime he got content with how his life was going, something had to come and fuck it all up.

Nero and the destruction of Vulcan, not to mention the introduction of the hobgoblin into Jim’s and his life. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that Leonard had been more then tempted to just let go of Dr. McCoy…Bones, and become Reaper once more. If only so he could make sure that Jim didn’t do anything stupid.

But now it was Spock who had Jim’s back and while at first it may have sent waves of resentment and uncertainty coursing through Bones’ heart, he had come to learn to trust the half Vulcan with not only being Second-in-Command on the Enterprise, but also with Jim’s very life.

Now two years into their five year exploratory mission had passed and Leonard had come to accept the fact that Jim would never have any feelings for him outside of friendship. Not when there was a chance for him to have a real relationship with Spock. Someone he could grow old with and not have secrets constantly between them.

It had been hard for him at first. Even though he knew that having another relationship was an incredibility bad idea, especially after what happened with Joyance.

Still…he couldn’t help but feel jealous whenever he spotted Jim and Spock talking to each other with a certain familiarity that Bones had never had the pleasure to share before with anyone, and more than likely, never will.

Ironic that he could finally acknowledge to himself that maybe the reason he had followed Jim to Star Fleet was because he had been curious and fascinated with the strangely charismatic young man. Some might call it love at first sight, but he didn’t believe in that, he knew that he hadn’t loved Jim when he had first meet him, he may have been curious, but not in love.

The love part came later as he got to know James T. Kirk, as a person and not just a name and face.

When they had been at the Academy together, Bones had noticed that his attention seemed to gravitate towards  
Jim more often than not, though he didn’t make anything of it. It had been a long while since the last time he had a night fling, it was just his hormones acting up. Jim was a hot young man whose sexual exploits were common knowledge to everyone with a libido. Bones had thought once or twice of sharing his bed for a night, but Jim was a playboy, he had more sexual partners a week then anyone Bones had ever known. Jim would welcome any willing partner into his bed and while that was all well and good, Bones didn’t want to be just another conquest to Jim. He might not have minded the one night stand that it would no doubt turn into, but having Jim treat it as just another sexual relief instead of putting some feeling into it, even if it was just friendship, was something that Bones couldn’t do.

So he’d kept his mouth shut about his improper feelings and urges and tried to be a good friend to Jim instead, someone without any inclination or longing to sleep with the resident king below the sheets. It was something that Jim desperately needed at the time, so much more than a lover.

When Jim was made Captain of the Enterprise after they got back to Earth Bones had no choice but to take over as CMO when asked. Someone had to take care of Jim’s injuries and Bones didn’t trust anyone else to the job, a normal doctor could be bought off, either that or he or she wouldn’t pay attention to Jim’s list of allergies and kill the kid by accident. Jim was so prone to accidents and damage that Bones was afraid that if he didn’t stick with the kid then he’d end up as a space corpse.

He already had a plan in action though. Bones couldn’t stay with Jim forever and neither could he remain on the Enterprise for more than a handful of years. He would train someone up that could take care of Jim when he left, someone who could put Jim’s well being before their very own and would care for the man.

When he saw the slight smile on Spock’s face as he watched Jim perform some kind of native dance on one of the planets they had made contact with, Bones had known then that it would be Spock who would stay with Jim when even Bones could not.

Bones took a long swallow of his strange berry drink that one of the natives had given him. He had checked out the menu before and hadn’t been able to read its text. After making his problem known, he’d asked for the sweetest drink they had, the native that had helped him said the best drink for that would be some berry Idel smoothie.

They’d just brought it out and Bones loved it, the drink had a sweet tang to it and was completely smooth as it went down his throat. There didn’t seem to be any kind of seeds or weird fruit skin in it either, the chips of frozen ice swimming in the drink also made it pleasantly cold. All in all, not a bad way to spend an evening; beat staying on board the ship and doing paperwork.

For the moment he took in the enjoyment of the pleasant relaxation of nothing going totally ape shit on him, but of course, that didn’t last long.

“So I see you’ve managed to get some fresh air doctor.” A voice purred near his head.

Bones nearly spat out the mouthful of smoothie that he’d just sipped at the suddenness of discovery. Turning his head Bones groaned out loud, making sure that it was long and exaggerated enough so there was no offense taken, there could have been worse people to find him.

Sulu and Chekov were standing right behind him with their own berry drinks in hand, both of them sporting mischievous smiles. As if getting the jump on him was some great achievement, and considering it had never happened before, they had a right to be smug. Bones’ enhanced senses usually told him well in advance if  
someone was trying to sneak up on him.

But because he was so relaxed, he had totally missed them creeping up on him.

“You damn kids startled me.” Bones grumbled well naturally. It just caused the mischievous smiles on their faces to widen even further.

“We’z w’ery sorry doc’tor.” Chekov thick Russian accent seemed even thicker today than usual, must be the berry drink and relaxation.

“I’m sure you are kid.” Bones drawled out, his tone disbelieving. Chekov giggled at Bones’ tone of voice and Sulu just smirked.

“So doctor, how is it that you’re out and about? From what I heard in the grapevine, you were suppose to be stocking inventory for at least another couple of days.” Sulu asked curiously.

Bones snorted. “Well I wouldn’t believe everything I hear from the grapevine, which I know you mean that the captain told you by the way, but there wasn’t half as much stuff as the captain thought there would be. I managed to finish a while ago and thought I’d spend the rest of my free time relaxing before we all go back to the business of keeping the captain from getting himself killed.”

Chekov who had just calmed down from his laughing fit was reduced to giggles again. Bones couldn’t help but wonder if the drink Chekov was continuously sipping had something with a little more kick to it than juice.

“Whatever you say then doctor. I’m just glad you’re getting some fresh air. I know that the captain felt regretful after he ordered you to stay aboard the ship. I even heard that Spock tried to change his mind.”  
Sulu said, taking a sip from his own drink.

Bones raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Spock? I find that unlikely. Whoever told you that was obviously having you on.”

Sulu shook his head but didn’t try to convince Bones differently.

Bones sighed, “And I know Jim would feel guilty. It’s the captain after all. But you and I know he couldn’t take back the order after he gave it. It would set a bad example of leadership to the crew if he treated me any differently than the rest of them. Just because I’m his friend doesn’t mean he can treat me better. It wouldn’t be fair, not to mention that it would cause resentment that could fester and become a problem later.”

Sulu and Chekov nodded in agreement. They knew what Bones was talking about. When they had first came back to Earth after stopping Nero, there had been a lot of in-house problems in Starfleet. A lot of the older higher ups wanted to kick out most of the command crew of the Enterprise; they also wanted Kirk in jail.  
Luckily they all had the media and Chris Pike on their side. With that, not only did they not all get kicked out and Jim didn’t go to jail they got full control of the Enterprise.

Most of the people against them complained that they were too young and inexperienced to command the flag ship.

Pike and their supporters pointed out that even though they were young they were hardly inexperienced.

“So doc’tor, now that you’re out and ‘bout vill you be joining the k’ptain and k’ommander?” Chekov asked.  
His head tilted to the side, childishly.

“Oh hell no kid, I’m going to avoided Jim and the damn goblin like they got the damned plague.” Bones exclaimed.

While Sulu nodded in understanding Chekov had an adorable, if puzzled, expression on his face, like he couldn’t figure out why Bones wanted to avoid the Captain and Commander. Christ he really was a kid. Chekov may have shown everyone that he was smart enough to work on the Enterprise and had the balls to deal with tough situations, but he was still only 19 years old. He’d been 17 when they had left on their five year long journey. While a lot of the older members of the crew treated him like you would treat someone with kid gloves, no one on the Alpha crew dared to try that. He may have been young, but he could drink you under the table and clean you out in poker.

“I’m sorry, but I don’ understand, vouldn’t you be wit’ dem if they vere sick?” Chekov asked, confused.

“Well, yes I would, but that’s not what I meant. If I meet up with Jim and Spock, then I will no doubt be pulled into whatever shindig that Jim is bound to fall into.” Bones explained as patiently as he could.

Chekov made ‘ahh’ sound of sudden understand.

“You don’ vish to get involved in the troubles that the K’ptain vill no doubt get caught in.” Chekov concluded.

“Yea, sure kid. No doubt he’d insult or flirt with the wrong person and cause some kind of scandal or fight.  
The hobgoblin can get him out of that, so my presence isn’t actually required.” Bones shrugged. It was a good excuse because it had a grain of truth in it, although that wasn’t the entire reason why he was making sure to avoid meeting up with Jim and Spock.

The real truth of the matter was he wanted to give Jim and Spock some time alone together. Because whenever  
Bones was around them, Jim always managed to drag him into the thick of it, which basically meant including him in whatever game or conversation that Jim had been enjoying with Spock before Bones walked through the door. And while Bones appreciated it, hell if he was honest with himself he enjoyed the hell out of it, he couldn’t allow it to continue, not if it delayed the blooming romance between those two.

Jim needed to stop chasing one night stands and realize his damn attraction to his second in command and while Bones couldn’t be sure if Spock realized yet the attraction between himself and the captain, he couldn’t help but feel suspicious. Bones would be willing to place bets on his favorite tricorder that Spock knew exactly what kind of attraction there was between himself and Jim.

He just wouldn’t make the first move for some reason, which frustrated Bones and yet calmed him too, which just made him feel angry at himself and the situation.

If Spock and Jim finally got together than Bones could finally put to rest these…feelings he had for Jim and, to his absolute horror, to some extent, Spock.

Bones lifted his arm and drained the last of his drink. Placing the glass down along with a few coins that passed for this planet’s money, he got up.

“Well, it was nice seeing you boys, but I’m going to go for a nice walk around town. Have fun with the rest of your leave, I’m sure it’s the last one we’ll have in quite a while.” Bones said smartly before walking away.

Sulu and Chekov called out their goodbyes and walked in the opposite direction.

 

\--

 

‘So, what to do now?’ Bones wondered, bored out of his mind. The planet they were docked at was clearly not a tourist trap, and while most of the shops lining the streets were bustling with crewmen and women looking for a good and relaxing time, it was all so terribly boring.

Damn, Jim had certainty ruined his liking for peace and quiet. If he wasn’t in the middle of a firefight or complicated surgery, then he was bored.

If Sam was here she would be kicking his ass right now.

Bones snorted as he saw a nearby sweet shop was overflowing with crewmembers looking to stock up on their sweets and sugars. Looks like Bones wasn’t the only one who thought this might be their last vacation for awhile.

What Bones was looking for now was a shop that sold spirits and alcohol. He’d run out of the good stuff months ago and needed to stock up. Especially if things continued to be as hectic as they had been in the past.

It wasn’t like alcohol affected him much, so he had an excuse, at least to himself, to drink more then the average human. He’d been called an alcoholic more than once by both friends and strangers, not that it bothered him what they thought. If they wanted to believe that he liked to drown his sorrows in beer and ale, then so be it.

He hadn’t been able to get truly drunk off his head for almost two hundred years now. Romulan ale didn’t even affect him until the 5th bottle and that stuff was hard to obtain legally, considering that it was banned from all federation planets. It didn’t even make him drunk, just pleasantly buzzed for an hour before his body burned the foreign substance from his blood stream. Scotty had some home brew stuff down in Engineering, but Bones thought that the hard working engineers deserved the outstanding brew more than he did. So he’d only gone down there once or twice, it had been fun actually. The engineers of the Enterprise were all loud and fun, especially drunk off their rocks. They reminded Bones of his old RRST team, and even the pain of remembering them didn’t diminish the fun of it.

As he continued to walk, Bones saw one of the natives out and about on the street. The natives were distinctive enough from the crew, what with their wild blue and orange hair, pale green skin, and a third eye on their forehead. Bones had yet to see the eye open on any of the natives yet and he didn’t feel up to asking either. It wasn’t any of his business after all, and the last thing he needed was to upset anyone and have the Captain and Commander show up to fix any political problems he might stir up.

While it seemed that all the natives were staying inside their shops and homes this native was out and about among the crewmembers, it also resembled a young child, judging by how small she/he was. Bones couldn’t determine the gender of the child, mostly because all the natives seemed to be androgynous; at least that’s what Bones concluded after watching the natives for these last few hours when he’d gone into the shops to browse.

The child was bouncing what looked like some kind of toy, a brightly colored ball made of some organic matter with little wiggly ends that moved around seemingly independently. It was kind of cute, not that  
Bones would ever say that out loud with so many of the crew around. After all, he had a reputation to uphold.

As Bones passed them, he cast his head around to look for the child’s parents, but other than the crew from the ship there didn’t seem to be any other natives around on the street.

Bones’ face broke out in a scowl and he crossed his arms in front of him.

It didn’t sit right with him that no one was watching the youngling. Not that anything would befall the child, especially with all the Starfleet officers around, but even if they were on leave, Bones didn’t doubt for a second that if needed, the officers would stand to attention and report to duty without a single hesitation.

Bones hesitated for a second, wondering if he was overacting and the child’s parents were in fact nearby, but he knew that if he kept on walking his conscious would torture him later on. What if something happened  
and he ignored the danger?

With a sigh of resignation and an internal curse at his bleeding heart, Bones walked the last few steps towards the child, making sure that his demeanor was as harmless looking as possible.

Bones stood in front of the child who didn’t indicate that he/she was aware of his presence yet. Though he couldn’t explain it, Bones knew instinctively that the child knew he was there.

“Hello child, shouldn’t you be inside with your parents?” Bones asked gently, making sure that he wasn’t standing too close to the child. He had no intention of scaring or appearing threatening to him/her.

The child stopped bouncing the ball and picked it up. Then turned his/her wide alien eyes up at Bones, even if the eyes were odd and cat shaped there was no mistaking the genuine confusion in them.

‘Ah shit, I didn’t even think that the kid wouldn’t speak standard.’ Bones scolded himself. He’d gotten use to speaking to the few natives that understood a few words of the universal language, but he should have realized that not everyone would know how to speak it. Bones didn’t have a translator with him either. Not that it would help much in this case. He suddenly wished that Nyota was here. She knew at least some of the native language on this planet and would no doubt know the entire thing before long.

“O?” The child’s voice was soft and musical. It was slightly different then the other natives voices as they seemed more prong to speaking in deep throaty voices. Bones still couldn’t figure out the gender of the child. Not that it mattered, but it was the principle of the matter. He didn’t want to feel guilty and offend anyone if he called the child by the wrong gender, if it had a gender that is.

“Sorry kid, I didn’t realize you couldn’t understand me. Here how about this. Maammaaa and Paaappa?” Bones tried to speak in the tongue of the planet but his tongue felt thick in his mouth and he knew that he didn’t say anything intelligent.

But it seemed despite his total cluelessness the child understood him. She/he grinned widely up at him, causing Bones to take note of the rather large set of canine teeth that the child had growing in there. The species on this planet were defiantly meat eaters even though Bones had yet to see any kind of meat products around.

The kid began to talk fast in his/her language; it sounded like complete gibberish to him. He tried to gesture that he didn’t understand, but the child kept on talking. Finally though the kid seemed to notice that he wasn’t responding back, he/she frowned in thought before suddenly grinning widely. He/she darted forward and grabbed Bones’ hand and dragged him towards a nearby building.

“Whoa kid! Calm down.” Bones yelped, surprised by the kid’s forwardness. He really wanted a talk with this child’s parents, for the kid to trust like this was dangerous. If Bones had been someone else with unsavory intentions the kid could have been seriously hurt.

The child dragged him all the way into the building, Bones tried to get the kid to let go of him, but for such a small thing the child had quite the grasp and he didn’t want to show off his superior strength and accidently harm the kid.

The kid dragged him through many odd rooms, ignoring the occupants inside, Bones tried to communicate with the passing adults, but they all ignored him and the child.

Soon enough, the child stopped in front of one door and opened it, Bones saw that it lead down a small flight of stairs. The kid dropped his hand and pointed downwards and looked up at Bones expectedly.

Now Bones wasn’t stupid, he knew that the child wanted him to go down there, but despite his…gifts, he really didn’t want to walk into something he had no idea about.

“I don’t think so kid.” He said gruffly. He made to walk away, the kid was safely in a building so he was no longer his concern, but was stopped by a voice.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” The voice sounded old, like really old.

Bones turned around but he didn’t see anyone, it seems that the voice had come from the room at the bottom of the stairs.

“I don’t have all day. Come at once.”

Well someone was bossy. Bones raised an eyebrow at the impatient tone, but shrugged and walked down the steps, the kid following behind him.

He tried hard not gap out loud as he got down to the bottom of the stair case. The room was huge, more like an underground house then a basement.

The room was filled with candles and trinkets, rugs of various shades of color and texture littered the ground and in the center of it all was an old man.

He looked similar to the other natives expect for the fact that his skin was a light blue instead of green and his hair was a stark white.

He was old too, his body looked dried up and he was bent over himself as if his spine was curling into itself.

“Ah so you’ve finally arrived. I feared that I would pass on into the Ether before we could meet.” The alien spoke to him.

Bones raised an eyebrow in confused. “I’m sorry, but you say you were expecting me?”

“Yes old one. I am called the Oracle and I have been waiting many years for you.”

Bones eyes widen when the old alien called him ‘old one.’

“Excuse me, I don’t think I warrant the title ‘old one’, I think that might be more your style gramps.” Bones said gruffly.

The Oracle wheezed and it took Bones a moment to realize the sound was laughter.

“Oh you are a treasure aren’t you?” The Oracle wheezed some more before calming down. “It’s too bad that we don’t have more time to talk, time is pressing however, so I’ll just get on with it shall I?” The twinkle in the Oracle’s eye caused Bones to chuckle himself.

“Sure. Why don’t you tell me why your little one dragged me down here?” Bones said nonchalantly, although the tone was wasted as his body was clearly tensed, ready for anything.

The Oracle’s body went still and his eyes glazed over, when he spoke his voice had an odd echoing whisper to it that hadn’t been there before.

 _“The Bones of what was once a Reaper ambles through the plains of destruction and death, following that which gives him light and peace, his tears bleed red as one of those he loves walks towards destruction, while the other is carried away by death’s hand. Only once he truly becomes that which he was made to be, those he savors and adore will return to him and the light and peace will return threefold.”_

“What the hell is that?” Bones breathed out, anger clear in his voice. He couldn’t help himself as his brain processed the verses over and over again, analyzing and pulling apart the riddle.

“A prophecy that my great grandfather spoke before he died, he was a powerful Oracle and that prophecy was greatly feared and reverie for many years, it has become lost to time sadly. Not many of my people remember it. But I never forgot and I have waited my entire life for you to come to this planet so that I may share it with you.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Bones shook his head and glared at the old man.

“No I don’t suspect that it does, but soon you will need these words. Remember them in your time of need and you may save those great loves of yours.”

Bones left after that, there wasn’t anything more the old man wanted to tell him and the child had disappeared somewhere else.

He decided that he would erase this strange event from his mind; he didn’t need to inform Jim or Spock about it. They would just blow everything out of proportion and demand answers that Bones was unwilling to give them.

 

\--

 

After that bit of strangeness, Bones decided to continue his walk. He noticed that the daylight was diminishing and the further he walked the more empty the streets became. The street lights gave off little light, not that it stopped Bones, whose eyesight was like those of a cat. The darker it got the more his eyes adjusted to the lack of light until he could see as clearly as if it was day.

Bones didn’t know what direction he was walking in, but it was apparent that the further he walked, the further away he was from where everyone else was.

The shops became few and far in between and soon he was in what was clearly a residential area.

Inhaling deeply Bones tasted the air. It was nice not to have the taste and smell of machines and chemicals in the air. Earth nowadays, was entirely swamped in the stench of pollution. This civilization didn’t have any fuel fired automobiles or fossil fumed buildings.

From what he could tell, they used water and solar power the most. While defiantly cleaner then what most planets used, they would never reach the level of technological advancements that so many other civilizations had made with the power of pollution and fuel powered machines.

Maybe it was for the best…this simple and pleasant living was something to be cherished and not spoiled.

"Listen to me being all melodramatic. I really need to stop having these thoughts when I’m by myself…walking in the dark…all alone…wow, I’ve gotten creepier in these last two hundred years." Bones chuckled darkly at himself.

After awhile, the street took a bend and Bones found himself back at the beach. It wasn’t the same spot he’d been in earlier, and in fact, seemed to be entirely deserted.

Leaving the quiet residents behind him, Bones walked across the sandy blue dunes until he found a pleasant enough spot to sit and relax.

Laying back into the warm sand, Bones decided that the med-bay could stand without him for one night. The air was pleasantly warm, not that the weather bothered him much, and the sand nice and soft, and most of the crew wouldn’t even return to the ship until the next day anyway. If anyone needed a doctor, B’ang could look after them.

Sometimes he really hated the Enterprise, with its confined rooms and steel walls. Ever since he was injected with chromosome 24, his instincts had enhanced to the point where he hated to be confined in any space. Even the thought of settling down for a decade or two gave him a creeping sensation under his skin.

But he endured, and after a while, even took a small sense of -if not enjoyment- accomplishment and pride of the work he’d done as the CMO of the USS Enterprise.

He couldn’t help but wonder though if Sam would have been proud of him, of Leonard McCoy and the life he’d led. He liked to think that she would have been.

Bones let out a jaw popping yawn and closed his eyes as the planet’s twilight descended upon the horizon.

Bones hadn’t even realized that he’d fallen asleep until his com began to beep, signaling that there was an oncoming call from the Enterprise. The morning suns were just beginning to rise on the horizon, so he was pretty certain that he’d stayed out the entire night. Good thing that the nights here were relatively warm.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, Bones fumbled for his communications device. He winced as sand began to flow out from parts of him that he would rather not think about.

“Yea?” He answered, still a bit sleepy from having just woken up.

“Doctor!” Chekov panicked voice woke Bones more than three hundred cups of coffee could ever hope to achieve.

“Chekov? Status report!” Bones barked out.

“The k’aptain ‘as been kidnapped!” Chekov reported with distress, it was clear that he hadn’t just gotten this information, his voice might hold distress and panic but he was a heck of a lot calmer then he usually was at these incidences.

Bones inhaled sharply. “What the hell? Kidnapped? How? Where the hell was Spock? You know what, don’t answer any of that. Just beam me up.” Bones clicked off the communicator.

Not a second later he found himself standing in the transporter room. Chekov was waiting for him; his face was pale and pinched. Bones imagined that his own face greatly resembled his at that moment.

“Where’s Spock?!” Bones demanded as he stepped down the raised dais and walked out of the room. Chekov followed after him, having to jog a bit because of the fast pace Bones was walking.

“He’s in medbay right now. Ve believe dat vhoever had taken de k’aptain tried to kill de k’ommander as vell, but didn’t know much about w’ulcan anatomy, because the shot missed his vital organs. Doctor M’Benga is taking care of him now and Lt. Sulu has the com. Ve have recalled everyone back aboard de ship now sir.”

“Shit, does anyone know what time Jim was taken?” Bones demanded as he switched directions and headed to the medbay instead of the command deck.

Chekov shook his head, “No, de k’ommander vas found only half an hour ago. His communicator vas smashed and his veapon taken. Sulu is trying to contact the leaders of dis vorld to see if anyone on dis planet had taken him or if ano’der starship had landed here vithout us knoving. Ve vould have called you sooner, but ve vere mainly focusing on making sure dat de k’ommander didn’t die.”

Bones stopped walking and let out a weary sigh. “I’m sorry Chekov, I know your trying your best. It’s just that…Jim.”

Not to mention that Spock had been shot and was more than likely in surgery. The anger that surged inside of him at the idea of anyone shooting the hobgoblin like that surprised him. He knew that he didn’t hate the Vulcan, at least not anymore, and he trusted the man to take care of Jim when Bones was unavailable, but he hadn’t known that he was protective of the damn green-blooded man.

Chekov nodded in understanding when Bones mentioned the Captain. Everyone knew about how much Bones prized his friendship and hated to see his friend hurt in any situation.

“I’m going to check on Spock and see if I can’t get any information on him. Go back to the command deck and keep me informed on everything, alright?” Bones asked.

Chekov nodded again and steered off down another corridor.

Bones took in a deep breath, trying to hide how shaken he really was, as personal passed him by.

He didn’t know how he made it the rest of the way to the medbay, but suddenly he found himself standing in front of the doors leading inside. Taking another deep breath Bones walked inside and took charge of the situation.

“Chapel, status report!” He barked out to his head nurse. Chapel was directing several other interns and nurses around the room.

“Sir, we’re already got the commander stable and resting in a nearby bed. The wound wasn’t life threatening, but could have become probable with blood loss. Luckily we found him in time and closed the wound. He is resting in a Vulcan healing trance and will wake within the hour. There are no other patients at the moment, but we are getting ready for when the captain comes back, just in case he’s…in less than optimal condition.”

“Good.” Bones nodded, relieved that Spock was going to be okay. He didn’t question his relief. There were more important situations to address at the moment.

“I’m going to check up on him and wait for him to wake up. He’s probably the only one who can tell us about Jim.” Bones said and Chapel nodded.

“Yes sir. I will inform you if anything changes.”

“Thank you.” Bones said gratefully before walking into the room Chapel had pointed to.

Bones inhaled sharply as he caught sight of Spock on the medical bed. His skin was waxy looking, while his usual green skin tone was grayish. If this was Chapel’s ideal of recovery he’d hate to see what she thought life threatening was.

Bones walked slowly and collapsed on the chair next to the bed. For a while he just stared at Spock, eyes unfocused.

He should have been there with them, he usually was, but ever since he’d come up with the not-so-brilliant plan of match-making, he hadn’t even tried to tag along with them whenever they went out.

But he should have been there, his strength could have made all the difference, if he’d been there, Jim wouldn’t be missing and Spock wouldn’t be in medical recovering from surgery. Sure, Jim and Spock would no doubt know about Bones’…unusual strength and healing factor, but Bones figured that it would have been worth it.

If only he’d been there.

“…Doctor…?”

Bones’ eyes focused onto Spock, who was staring at him groggily.

“Hey Spock.” Bones spoke gently and got up to check Spock’s pupil dilation. After making sure that nothing was amiss he sat back down.

“How are you feeling?”

Spock’s forehead wrinkled as he thought about it.

“I feel tired and my body aches. I was in a healing trance.” It was a statement, not a question.

Bones answered it anyway. “Yes you were. Can you remember what happened to you?”

Spock’s eyes began to clear and the fog of sleep and pain began to disappear.

“I remember that the captain and I were enjoying non-alcoholic drinks and talking about…something important.” Spock’s unusual pause caused Bones to raise an eyebrow in confusion. He was about to demand that  
Spock tell him about what they were talking about but Spock steamrolled him.

“It was getting late and we were about to head back to the ship to get a status report when they came from the shadows.”

“Who came?” Bones demanded, but softened his tone when he saw the pain reappear in Spock’s eyes; it wasn’t physical pain that he was feeling, but emotional.

Spock had a pain in the ass gift of speaking calmingly and unemotionally even at the worst of times, he could look calm and in control, even if the world was falling apart around him, but his eyes…they had always been expressive. Bones had taken the time and he knew that Jim had as well to learn how to read Spock’s eyes to know what he was truly feeling, instead of listening to his words of assurance.

“They were human.” Spock answered, eyebrows creased. “They wore uniforms and were highly trained. They caught me by surprise and subdued the Captain before I could comm for help. I remember Jim managing to injure one of them and I heard one of them call another’s name, but I believe I passed out after that.”

Bones nodded, “Thank you Spock, that’s actually helpful.”

“How so Doctor?” Spock asked emotionlessly. Bones winced slightly, Spock was clearly blaming himself for letting the kidnappers get away with Jim, and while Spock wasn’t totally wrong, he wasn’t to blame for what had happened. It was Bones’ responsibility to make sure that Jim stayed healthy and happy, it didn’t matter that Spock was second in command or that he was Jim’s best friend. Bones held himself responsible for what had happened. He couldn’t blame Spock, not while he was injured. Maybe if he’d come back unharmed Bones would have flayed him alive for not protecting Jim, but everyone had been too relaxed. They all had some blame to place on themselves. Even if they had been on leave they still shouldn’t have let their guard down as much as they had.

“Spock, listen to me and listen good.” Bones ordered gruffly. Spock turned to look at him reluctantly; in the entire time he had spoken, he hadn’t once looked Bones in the face, as if he was too ashamed of himself.

“It was not your fault – no, don’t argue with me!” He barked as Spock opened his mouth, no doubt to protest. “It isn’t your fault because it’s everyone’s fault.”

 _‘Mostly mine,’_ he didn’t add but his tone clearly implied it.

“We were too relaxed and didn’t take the necessary precautions that we should have. Jim should have had at least four security officers shadowing him, but we didn’t even think about it did we?”

Spock flinched at what he obviously thought was a dig at his professionalism.

“Oh, I’m not blaming you, you big baby. It was Jim’s responsibility to know this as well. He was never one to follow the rules and we’ve all been taken in by his example. When we get him back -and we will- we’ll both sit him down and have a long talk about following procedure and for having both of our blood pressure sky rocket with his stupid stunts.”

Spock’s eyebrows had raised high on his forehead as he stared at Bones, but his eyes were clear and he wasn’t trying to look away from Bones’ steady gaze.

Finally Spock nodded and his whole body relaxed back onto the bed. He might not have realized it, but Bones had seen how tense he’d gotten when Bones had begun to talk.

“Alright then, I’m glad we had this talk.” Bones’ dry sarcasm seemed to almost drag out a smile from Spock if the twitching lips were anything to go by. “Now that we know you’re not gonna die on us, I’m going to head up to the command deck and see if Sulu has contacted Pike yet. If it really was humans-” Oh the glare that Spock just shot at him for doubting him. “-which I’m sure that they were, then the Admiral should be informed quickly. He might even have an idea of why our mysterious kidnappers wanted Jim.”

“I shall go with you.” Spock said before getting out of the bed.

“What? No you are not.” Bones protested and got up to push the stubborn Vulcan back onto the bed.

“Now that Jim has been kidnapped I am Captain of the Enterprise. There is no time for me to be sitting around when there is work to be done. I must talk to the Admiral myself.”

There was no changing Spock’s mind when he got like this, Bones sighed and nodded his head slowly. Both  
Spock and Jim had this terrible stubborn streak that made Bones want to whack them upside the head, repeatedly.

“Fine, but take it easy. If, for any reason, your wound starts to hurt or you feel dizzy you get your green-blooded ass back in this bed.” Bones ordered and cursed silently when the only answer Spock gave him was a patronizing eyebrow raise.

Bones turned around sharply and led the way towards the command deck, Spock following close behind. Bones could practically feel Spock’s amusement and curiosity about Bones’ odd behavior. Bones knew that he was taking charge and he needed to back the hell off if he didn’t want anyone asking questions, but he couldn’t help it. Jim was missing and while that wasn’t completely uncommon, this time they had no idea who took him and for what reason, not to mention they had no idea where and by whom he was being held. Added with the creepy visit he had with grandpa and Bones was officially freaking out, internally of course.

Sulu greeted them solemnly when they arrived. It was clear they still hadn’t found Jim yet by the grim faces.

Bones walked towards the side were Uhura was standing. Spock was the captain now; he would let him ask the questions.

“Lieutenant, have you gotten into contact with the Admiral?” Spock asked as he stood in front of the  
Captain’s chair, he didn’t sit down though, something which Bones approved of greatly.

“We’ve sent out two messages to Admiral Pike and have not yet received anything back.” Sulu said, his face a picture of grim determination.

Spock nodded and turned to look at the communications desk where Uhura and Bones were standing, waiting for orders.

“Send out another message.” Spock ordered, Uhura nodded and began to send out another top priority message.  
Her face was pinched tight with worry, like everyone else.

For a moment Bones could have sworn that Spock looked at him for guidance, but that was ridiculous, why would Spock look for help from the CMO?

“Lieutenant, has all personal been beamed aboard?” Spock asked.

Sulu nodded, “Yes sir, everyone is prepped and ready for orders, and all are battle ready.”

“Good, how about the government of this planet? Have they been informed?”

Sulu shook his head. “No sir, we figured that it would be best for you to address them with this issue, especially if they are responsible.”

Spock seemed to approve of this and Bones let out a sigh of relief. It might be unfair, but the last time  
Bones saw Spock as captain the man had kicked Jim off to an isolated ice planet. Bones didn’t want to hold a grudge, but he had to admit that he was good at them considering his long-levity.

Bones watched hawk like as Spock contacted the natives of the planet; they didn’t have much technology, if any, but Starfleet had given them a communications station for the leaders of the planet in case of emergency, like now.

The leaders denied any knowledge or participation in Captain Kirk’s kidnapping, they seemed scandalized that such a thing happened actually.

It was when Spock asked if any other starship had docked on the planet that they got lucky. Apparently another ship had been in orbit, the natives had been assured that they were with the members of the Enterprise and that they would only be in orbit for a short while. That had been last night, and since they had been human, the natives had taken their word for it on face value.

You didn’t have to be a mind reader to see the annoyance in Spock’s eyes as the Vulcan stared down at the natives who groveled in apology.

“Captain, incoming message from the Admiral.” Uhura called out. Spock quickly said his goodbyes to the leaders, ignoring the pleas of innocence and ignorance and had Uhura switch the screen.

“Admiral.” Spock acknowledged gravely.

“Captain.” Pike looked exhausted and his face was as pinched in worry as the rest of them. “I’m sorry I missed your other calls, I was in a…meeting of sorts.” The grimace on his face was unusual for the Admiral and had them all internally questioning just what kind of meeting could have put the Admiral in such a foul mood.

“Are you updated to our situation?” Spock questioned and Admiral Pike nodded, his face becoming even graver.

“Yes I am but—there are circumstances that you and the Enterprise aren’t aware of.”

“Circumstances?” Bones growled out suddenly and ignored the Vulcan glare from Spock. “Care to elaborate Admiral?”

Pike stared at him coolly. In the time that he’d been Starfleet, if anyone could have figured out his real identity he would have placed bets on Christopher Pike, the guy was just that shrewd and perceptive.

“Hello doctor, I didn’t realized that your presence was required on the command deck at this moment.”

Bones bristled at the implication, “I think it’s very required Admiral.”

Spock tried to get things back on track, “Sir, you were saying that there is some information that we have not been informed as of yet?”

Pike turned his attention back to Spock. “Truthfully Captain, if I was to tell you about this information and it got out, I would be court-martialed and more than likely shot in a dark alley.”

As the rest of the crew gasped, Bones and Spock’s eyes narrowed shrewdly at what they didn’t doubt wasn’t an exaggeration. Pike wasn’t prone to them and he was the only Admiral they all trusted not to bullshit them, well, him and Admiral Archly.

“You wouldn’t have told us about there being some information that we weren’t aware of if you hadn’t been planning on telling us about it” Spock informed emotionlessly. “Sir.”

“True Spock, true.” Admiral Pike chuckled and straightened some papers in front of him.

“Earlier today I was secreted away to a meeting with all the chief of staff of Starfleet. All the Admirals and two Captains were present for this meeting. Apparently, an age old company had been embezzling money for quite some time from the RnD departments; years in fact. Some lower ensign was actually the one who caught on to it when he went over some old paperwork that needed to be computed into the system. Now, as you can imagine this was quite a scandal to learn, especially since the only reason this company could have done this for so long was if it had help from some of the higher ups. This meeting wasn’t so much of a meeting as an integration. We managed to trap one of the Captains and two of the Admirals and handed them over to some-specialists who deal with this kind of thing. They confessed to working for a shadow company.”

“What’s the company’s name?” Pavel asked, and then blushed bright red as everyone turned their attention to him.

“They’ve changed their logo and name several times in the past few decades, but they were originally Union Aerospace Corporation, commonly known as the UAC at the time.”

Bones’ breath whistled through his teeth as his muscles bunched up. That name! He’d hadn’t heard anything about the UAC for decades. Had, in fact, thought that those money greedy bastards had finally gone to ground and blown over.

Apparently they had gone to ground, only to regroup instead of die off.

Bones had to physically restrain himself from roaring in anger and denial. It wouldn’t help the situation and would in fact make things a lot worse than they already were.

“UAC?” Pavel asked, “I’ve never heard of them before.”

“You wouldn’t have,” Pike admitted, “They’re old school, was founded over two hundred years ago.”

Sulu let out a low whistle, for them, two hundred years was a long time and for the company to still be around even in the shadows was impressive for them.

 _‘Two hundred years was not long enough for those sons of a bitches,’_ Bones thought angrily.

“So what does this company have to do with the Captain?” Pavel asked timidly.

Pike’s smile was positively shark like. “Everything.”

What felt like ice water shot through Bones, what could UAC possibly want with Jim?

“Explain.” Spock ordered, though politely, which wasn’t something that Bones felt necessary at the moment.

Pike sighed and then answered wearily. “Apparently the UAC conducts genetic research, a lot of illegal crap from what I can tell. Apparently they use to own a research base on Mars, named Olduvai Research Facility.  
I’m not too sure what went on there, but it closed down about two centuries years ago and was never reopened. I have a minimal report on what that research base was working on, but it seems to be harmless.”  
Pike shuffled some papers in front of him.

It took all of Bones’ inner strength and determination not to protest that statement. Harmless? Tell that to the one hundred and seventy-two civilians that were either torn apart or gun down by Sarge. Tell that to his seven team mates who died on that god forsaken piece of shit red rock, to Goat and Duke, Destroyer and Mac, Portman and the Kid. Tell that to Sarge, his best friend gone insane and homicidal. Tell that to his fucking parents who died on that forsaken rock.

Nothing the UAC had done or conducted was harmless, which was why John Grimm had spent sixty years tracking down all the scientists and Intel agents that had worked or did work for the UAC and murdered all of them in their sleep while burning all evidence of what the company had done or was in the middle of doing. Better for it to be buried and gone forever then for them to somehow resurrect the 24th chromosome, or heaven forbid, something worse.

Apparently John should have spent more time hunting them down instead of believing them to be wiped out when he didn’t hear from them for twenty years. They’d just been hiding, likely because they had known he was hunting them down and destroying everything that they had ever worked towards.

For them to come to light like this, even unintentionally, must mean that they believe that John was dead and long turned into dust.

They wouldn’t be entirely wrong either, Bones had buried John Grimm so deeply in his physic it would be an amazing feat if he could resurrect him and the mindset that made John who he was. Bones was dissimilar from  
John in several ways, but they did share traits, much more than any of Reaper’s other personas had at least. Maybe because John and Bones were more real, more true, than all the other half masks he’d worn the past few centuries.

“From what the prisoners have confessed to us, it seems that they’re once again trying to revive this old base.”

“Olduvai? They’re trying to re-colonize that blood bath?!” Bones couldn’t keep silent when he heard that. It was something from his nightmares, the idea that humans would try once again to go to Mars and find the death trap that was Olduvai.

Everyone’s attention was now on him, he didn’t care though. He needed to know the truth, if what Pike was saying was true, then…

“Admiral, did you or did you not just say that the UAC are trying to reopen the Mars base?” Bones kept his voice level, but he had no doubt that his face wasn’t as calm looking as his voice.

Pike looked disturbed and Spock’s wasn’t much better, although his face was smooth in disinterest, his eyes were stormy as they stared hard at Bones.

“What I said Doctor was that from what we have gathered from our intelligence office was that, while they are trying to revive the base into a habitable work space once again, they have not yet managed it. We have a satellite that circles in that area and from the pictures it sends us periodically, it doesn’t look like anyone’s been there for a long time.”

“Could the cameras have been compromised? If two Admirals and a Captain were working with UAC, who knows how long others were working with them as well. It’s likely that most of your Intel is tainted.”

Pike’s face was stone cold as he replied. “Now see here Doctor, I’m not sure what you think you’re implying. You’re a medical doctor and little else, and since that’s what my Intel tells me, I will believe it. You have no say in this matter and if you know what’s smart you’ll keep your mouth shut kid.”

Bones stared pitilessly back at him then spoke softly. “Like I said sir, your Intel is tainted.”

It happened so fast that almost everyone else missed it; Bones of course saw it coming, but choose to remain motionless as the assault came at him.

Spock was quick and while Bones was sure he was faster he stood still as the Commander turned Captain locked his arms behind his back and pushed him face first into a nearby wall. It wasn’t as harsh as it could have been and Bones appreciated that. Spock clearly didn’t want to harm him and just looked to detained him.

“Doctor!” the rest of the crew shouted when they saw what Spock was doing.

“It’s fine.” He grunted out as Sulu stood nearby, fiddling with his stunner, clearly ready and willing to shoot Spock to free Bones. It warmed something deep in him to see how much his crew mates cared about him.

“Explain yourself Doctor.” Pike ordered from the screen. Spock eased up enough for Bones to turn his head towards the vid screen.

“As soon as you tell us what the UAC want with Jim then I’ll be happy to confess all my dirty little secrets Admiral.” Bones said spitefully.

“That’s not how this works Doctor.”

“That’s how I work, sir.”

Pike glared at him and Bones glared back, the tension between them was momentous considering one of them wasn’t even there physically. The other crew members shifted on their feet, clearly uncomfortable with the tension and the situation.

“James T. Kirk was kidnapped by mercenaries hired by the UAC. It seems that there’s something special in the old building that only the DNA of Dr. Todd Carmack can acquire. I think the DNA is needed because of some kind of locked mechanism. From what Intel tells me, doctor Carmack was the chief scientist of the base before it was forced to close down. The Kirk family is removed quite a bit from the Carmack family, but apparently not enough for UAC to give up hope, and since Jim’s an only child…”

“So what you’re telling me is that the sewage of UAC hired professional killers to kidnap Jim so that they could fly to Mars, to the base that was condemned by all of humanity, for something that they’d left behind?”

“Pretty much, yea.” Pike nodded.

Bones inhaled deeply and let it out slowly.

“What is Starfleet proposing to do about this?”

“Nothing.” Pike’s face could have been carved from ice although his eyes reflected how conflicted he was.

Everyone was clearly speechless at the Admiral’s admission. Spock let go of Bones completely, his face slack with shock as they all stared at the screen with disbelief.

“Nothing?” Bones snarled as the surprise wore off and anger took its place.

“Just what I said Doctor, the remaining Admirals and Captains had a vote, and the majority won. Starfleet will not conduct a rescue of Captain Kirk at this time until we have more information of what we’re up against.”

“Admiral.” Spock spoke gravely, “I hope this is some ill timed sense of humor that you humans are so fond of.”

“Sorry son, but I’m speaking the truth.”

“Bullshit!” Bones yelled and stalked forward towards the screen so that Pike would have a good view of how pissed off the good doctor really was.

“This is utter bullshit Chris and I mean it.” Bones dropped all sense of formality and hissed at Uhura’s warning glare. “Jim has done everything for them and they’ve only ever given him shit. He’s just a kid and doesn’t deserve the scorn and shit Starfleet throw at him.”

Pike stared impassively at Bones for a moment before his mask cracked. His face became weary and tired, showing them all how effected he was by the recent events.

“I agree with you doctor, I really do. Unfortunately, I was in the minority of the voting scale, only a few other Admirals and the other Captain agreed with me that we should mount a rescue. The others are too chicken shit to try or their pockets run deeper then we all thought.”

“So what’s the plan?” Bones demanded as Spock moved to stand next to him, he didn’t say anything, it was like he wanted to see how things played out between them first before intervening.

“The plan doctor will be figured out once you’ve told us just what the hell you know.” Pike was once again glaring at him, abide more gently then before.

Bones tensed up and looked around the room. Everyone had a look of curiosity on their faces, but it was also mixed in with suspicion. Bones sighed and stood up straighter in a soldier’s pose.

“Staff Sergeant and field medic John Grimm of the RRTS reporting for duty, sir.”

“RRTS?” Pavel asked, breaking the disbelieving silence that had come from Bones confession.

“Rapid Response Tactic Squad.” Pike answered for him, “But that’s impossible since the RRTS was disbanded over a hundred years ago.”

“Actually it was disbanded a hundred and eighty-nine years ago, sir.” Bones said dryly.

“Look doctor, I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, but-”

“Spock, if you would go to the terminal there and open file JRG-289-65, password: Sam.” Bones interrupted, “It should be under my medical emergency files.”

Spock walked towards the computer terminal closes to him and did as Bones asked. He didn’t say a word to anyone and Bones had the inkling that he was going to get verbally ass kicked once this was all over.

Once the file was open and uploaded Bones spoke, “Please send the file to Pike and then upload it to the other video screen so that you all can read it as well. It’s best that this information is kept within the boundaries of those in this room, and the Admiral of course.” He added as if it was an afterthought.

The room continued in silence as five people suddenly became privy to parts of Bones that he never wanted anyone to know.

The file didn’t hold too much, just a basic history of John Grimm and his time spent in the marines and RRTS, there were pictures of him as well, when Uhura saw the first one she had gasped in shock and disbelief, after that she didn’t once look up at Bones.

There was also a small file on his sister Samantha and the agrological work she’d done at Olduvai and the dirty file of the work that Dr. Carmack had done with chromosome 24 and the side effects.

The air got graver the longer they read the files on UAC that Bones had managed to smuggle out all those years ago. They didn’t read the whole thing of course, but Bones was sure they got the gist of it.

“This doesn’t make sense doctor.” Sulu finally grumbled out, “If this information is correct, you would have us believe that you’ve somehow lived for centuries without aging?” The skepticism was to be expected although it still hurt.

“If you read the side effects of what chromosome 24 does when injected in a human subject, then you wouldn’t have to guess how I did it.” Bones said gravely.

“You were injected with chromosome 24 when the base was attacked and destroyed.” Spock stated, like it was a matter of fact.

“A bullet rickshaw and hit me in the abdomen.” Bones leaned against a terminal, away from the others. “I bled out quickly, everything on that rock had gone up to shit already and I was willing to die, my sister had other ideas though. The chromosome goes two ways, it either turns you into a goddamn mother fucking monster or gives heighten senses while also giving you rapid healing. I’m over two hundred years old and I haven’t aged a day since then. My sister injected me with it once she caught on that I was dying.” Bones turned his head away. “I hadn’t wanted it, I didn’t want to turn into…one of them, but she was so sure that I had the quality in me to not turn into a mutated monster. She was right of course, my sister always was.”

“Why did you join Starfleet, Grimm?” Pike demanded to know. Bones knew that he had questions about the other stuff but Bones admired that Pike’s first thought was to his field.

Bones shrugged, “I’m an old man Chris, it was something different that I hadn’t done yet in the decades that  
I’ve lived. I’ve lived under many names and identities but Leonard McCoy is the one to come closest to who I really am deep inside. I’ve never meant for anyone to find out about this”

“Did you have any ill intentions towards Starfleet and its members?”

Bones glared up with solemn eyes. “Never.”

Pike stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “Alright, we’ll deal with this whole immortal super soldier doctor thing later, right now I’m ordering you all to Mars to save your Captain. It’s off the books for now of course, but I’m sure you all are willing to get court marshaled for this.” Pike smirked. “Doctor Grimm-”

“Please, it’s McCoy now, Grimm has been dead for centuries and I’d like to keep it that way.” Bones asked honestly.

Pike nodded and saluted them.

“Sir!” They all saluted and the video screen disconnected.

For a moment no one had any idea what they should do, they all shuffled their feet for a moment in silence, finally Uhura spoke up, she walked up towards Bones and stood in front of him.

“Well, I don’t really see how you being able to kick ass could change anything. I mean sure, Jim might have to ground you a while for lying to us for so long, but you are the best CMO that the Enterprise could ever have, not to mention a great friend. I vote we give you the benefit of the doubt, at least until we have the  
Captain back with us.” She looked at the others. “Agree?”

Sulu and Pavel nodded, they were wary of course, even Bones could see that, but they were still willing to trust him.

They all looked towards Spock who was standing apart from them, still reading the files on the small screen.

“Spock?” Uhura prompt. “What do you say?”

Spock looked up, his face entirely closed up. “I’m in agreement as well; we should rescue the Captain before making hasty decisions.”

“Alright then, full speed ahead to Mars.” Sulu nodded, “I’ll order Scotty to open up full throttle. What will we tell the crew members?”

“We are on a rescue mission to save the Captain, of course.” Spock looked at him, “the minimum is fine for now. Make a ship wide announcement that we have located the captain and for everyone to be battle ready.”

Everyone got into their stations as Pavel began to speak on the loud speaker, ordering and telling everyone what they needed to know, the kid really grew up fast, Bones couldn’t help but grin at the thought.

“What’s our ETA?” Spock demanded from where he stood in front of the Captain’s chair again, the files that he’d been reading were back on lockdown, which Bones was grateful for. As soon as Jim was rescued Bones knew he had to delete everything that he had shown them and make sure the file that Pike had was deleted as well, then…well, ghost time.

“Five hours if we use warp six.” Sulu answered as he pushed the throttle, everyone began to work on something or other. “I suspect that the kidnappers were using warp four, but since they’ve gotten a head start they’ll arrive at Mars two hours ahead of us.”

Bones stood to the side, he knew that he wasn’t needed right now, but he couldn’t leave the deck, couldn’t go back to his office in med bay and pretend that everything was normal.

He knew that he needed to meditate and think, that he needed to begin to bury the persona of Bones McCoy, doctor and bring forth the persona of John Grimm, soldier. They had no need for a doctor right now, but a soldier with experience…that’s what Jim needed him to be right now.

“Doctor?” Uhura asked suddenly.

Bones looked towards her.

“Yes darling?” He answered softly, a small smile grew on her face at the old familiar nickname that Bones always called the women of the crew, mostly her though.

“May I have permission to tell Scotty about…you know.” She waved her hand in the air, even though she didn’t say it Bones knew what she was getting at.

“Why don’t you ask the Captain.” Bones nodded his head toward Spock as he watched their conversation.

“Oh.” She blushed, “Well I just thought, since it’s your secret-”

“It’s up to Captain Spock,” Bones announced and then shrugged. “I personally don’t mind,” Liar a part of his whispered, “but it’s up to him if he wants more people to know. Personally, the smaller number of people who know about me is better.”

Spock was silent for a second before addressing the issue. “I believe it would be beneficial to tell engineer Scott, but that is all. Since he is your husband officer Uhura I won’t ask you to lie to him, and if Dr. McCoy is fine with sharing his secret with one more person, then I give you permission.” He nodded at Uhura’s smile of relief.

Bones sighed, yet another person who would look at him different. He believed that the only reason the others hadn’t freaked on him was that they were too concerned about Jim to bother thinking of it too deeply.

“I’ll head to the med bay then.” Bones said quickly, there was a bottle of bourbon with his name on it and frankly he thought he deserved a drink or five, even if the alcohol didn’t affect him that much.

“Actually Dr. McCoy, I would like a word with you.” Spock announced, “Lieutenant Sulu, you have the command.” Spock walked to the lift and Bones found he had no choice but to follow.

They were both silent as the lift took them to another deck. It took a moment to realize that Spock had directed the lift to take them towards the living quarters and not to medbay. He burned to ask why, but decided that silence was the smarter choice. Spock was radiating angry vibes and Bones didn’t have to guess that they were because of him.

Spock steered him without touching him towards the Captain’s quarters. Bones didn’t say anything when Spock punched in the security code to Jim’s quarters and directed him inside.

Bones walked towards a nearby chair and sat down, he knew that it was inadvisable and without advantage to sit down while his opponent was standing, but he refused to see Spock as his enemy, even if the Vulcan wanted to kick his ass right now.

Spock locked the door and stood in front of it, not saying anything, but just sort of staring at Bones, like he was a puzzlement that changed frequently on him so that he could never solve it.

“You haven’t been honest with us doctor.” Spock finally spoke.

“No, I haven’t Spock.” Bones said wearily.

“You’ve lied to both Jim and myself many times since we’ve known each other.” Spock said.

“Is this going anywhere?” Bones asked, bemused.

Spock continued to speak as if he hadn’t heard him. “Your name is a lie, your age is a lie, your identity itself is a lie. You might be a doctor, but you are also a soldier, which means you lied to both of us when you told us you hated guns and didn’t know how to shoot a target. I suspect your adversity to space is a lie as well.”

“Now hold on, I didn’t lie about that. I’m frankly sick of space and all of its death trappings.”

“Then why are you here Grimm?” Spock asked dangerously.

Bones hesitated for a moment and then told the truth, he seemed to be making a habit of it, so why stop now?

“Because Jim needs me.” Bones said faintly, “That stupid kid is a trouble magnet and…he’s also my best friend. I hadn’t had one of those in a very long time and I found…that I miss the company.”

Spock stared unblinking at him for a moment then walked towards him slowly, his hands clasped behind him.

“Are you in love with the Captain, Doctor?”

“Wha-!?” Bones sputtered, outraged at the question. “What the heck you hobgoblin?! What kind of question is that?”

“A simple one doctor.” Spock spoke gently. He was standing in front of Bones now and suddenly Bones wished fiercely that he hadn’t sat down when he had come inside.

He knew that he could push Spock away easily, it wouldn’t take much and he could leave at any time, the lock wouldn’t stop him, even if he hadn’t known the security code, which he did, he could break down the door without much trouble.

Bones glared up into calm eyes, the anger seemed to have drained from Spock entirely and Bones couldn’t figure out why.

He turned his head away and ground his teeth together, hard enough that he absently worried that he might snap a tooth.

“Leonard?” Spock asked smoothly. “Answer my question.”

Bones let out an explosive sigh and hung his head. “I may feel…affection for Jim. I mean who doesn’t, right?  
But it can never become anything else. I don’t look like it, I know, but I am an old man and he’s so young and has his whole life ahead of him, not to mention there’s you.”

“Me?” Spock prompts, questioningly.

“Oh come on Spock, you have to be dumb and blind to not see that Jim’s more than half mad in love with you.”

“Sometimes it’s easier not to see.” Spock said sagely.

“What kind of bullshit is that?!” Bones demanded and then gasped in astonishment and incredulity as Spock leaned down and kissed him solidly on the mouth.

Bones squeaked a bit, and he couldn’t help but moan as Spock’s hot tongue pressed insistently against his lips, without thought Bones parted his lips and allowed Spock entrance to his mouth. They’re tongues dueled for dominance before settling in a nice neutral slide of wet muscle.

When air became an issue Bones leaned back, breaking contact. He didn’t quite pant, but it was a near thing.

“Jesus, Spock. What the hell was that about?” Bones asked. He couldn’t help licking his lips; the taste of Spock was potent on his tongue and lips, a strangely addictive taste of spice and heat.

“Just making things clear Leonard.” Spock growled lowly when he saw Bones’ tongue, but kept his cool enough not to kiss him silly again. “Both myself and Jim have been talking for a while now, thinking of a plan on how to get you to recognize your attraction for us.”

“Us?” Bones said faintly.

Spock smirked then purred, “Oh Leonard, it’s not hard to see that you’re in love with Jim. He told me that he figured it out years ago, your want for him, but he never pushed. He was waiting for you to make your attraction known, but you never did, did you Doctor? I wonder why?” Spock’s smirk widen at Bones’ disbelieving scowl, “I will admit that Jim and I are lovers, and have been for quite some time now.” Spock confessed suddenly.

“What?! But there hadn’t been any evidence that Jim even acknowledged his attraction to you, let alone acted  
on it!” Bones exclaimed.

“We decided to keep our relationship low profile for now, at least until we addressed the matter of you.”

“What the hell do I have to do with your relationship with Jim?” Bones asked gruffly.

Even though this was actually what he’d been aiming for when he tried to play match-maker, he still couldn’t help but feel jealous at the idea that they were already lovers.

“Everything.”

That one word had so much power in it that Bones was struck speechless.

“While Jim is an attractive man and I’m happy to call him my friend and lover, I can’t help but pine after my first love, even though I am in a happy relationship with the Captain.”

“First love?” Bones asked, almost afraid to find out.

“A doctor actually, I first saw him during my second year at the academy. There had been an incident on one of the training grounds, a cadet had fallen wrong and had twisted his neck, he was still alive, but in great pain. I was going to take him to medical, but another cadet burst through the throng of cadets and ordered everyone to clear the area and not touch the injured man. I was angry and confused at the brashness of what was clearly a first year cadet. Who was he to order the older students around? He even directed the incoming instructors to listen to him and not to ask him stupid questions.” Spock chuckled a little over the slack jawed look Bones gave him.“He saved that cadet that day, because he knew exactly what needed to be done and didn’t care that he could have gotten kicked out of the academy for his actions. I was…impressed by this display of bravo and kindness, so I looked up the cadet’s file. Do you know what that cadet’s name was Leonard?”

Bones let out a shaky breath, while Spock had been talking, Bones had closed his eyes. He could remember that day, some stupid young punk had thought he’d try a move that was too advance for him and twisted the column of his neck, he’d had a hard time breathing and any movement could have cut his air way completely and caused him to suffocate. Luckily, Bones had been in the area and gotten everything under control. He didn’t remember seeing Spock there, but he had to admit he hadn’t paid much attention to the gawkers at the time that had surrounded them.

“His name was Leonard H. McCoy, a twenty something southern man who was gruff and unfriendly to most of the people around him, but he was a brilliant doctor and an even better friend to all those who knew him. I wanted to know more about this man and so I tried to talk to him, but he was always busy, if not with classes and surgery, then with his friend…James Kirk. I was so sure that the two of you were lovers. I admit I was jealous, not only was James young and beautiful, he was friendly and kind, a little reckless sure, but a good man. I’ve gotten to know James a lot since I’ve become Commander of this starship doctor, and I won’t lie, I’ve come to love him with all my heart. But I will never forget about the surly doctor that had captured it first.”

Bones let out another shaky breath, he could see that how much it had taken Spock to admit all this to him, his brown eyes were glassy and wide, and he was panting slightly.

Bones looked down and noticed that Spock’s hands were also shaking a little.

“I’m sorry Spock.” Bones breathed out and when he saw a reflection of Spock’s inner devastation he hastily continued. “Not about your feelings! But because I lied to you and everyone else.”

Bones ran a hand through his hair, of all the things to happen, this was what shocked him the most, not that UAC was still functioning and as corrupt as always or that they wanted to open the hell hole that was Mars once more. Not that his secret was out and that once this mission was done he might be shipped off to some secret government facility and experimented on. Not that Spock and Jim were already lovers and that his attempts in matchmaking were completely useless and unnecessary, although he did still feel somewhat shocked over that fact, they hide their activities well.

No, what shocked him and made him want to run in circles in confusion was that apparently Spock had been in love with him for years and that somehow, even with his relationship with Jim, he was still in love Bones.

“How does Jim feel about this?” Bones asked, curious and a smudge afraid.

Spock shrugged, but Bones caught the tug of a smile on his face.

“He’s been trying to order a bigger bed to accommodate us all comfortably.”

Bones choked on air for a moment then laughed heartily, if it was tainted with a slight edge of hysteria  
Spock thankfully didn’t address it.

“Alright.” Bones smiled, the first real smile he could remember showing in a while. “Alright you crazy Vulcan, what do you want then?”

“Right at this moment, I want to rescue the man that we both love from the people who had hurt you.” Spock said seriously, “Then I want to punish them so that they know never to mess with either of you ever again, then I would like to order another two weeks of vacation for us and the crew, someplace nice and relaxing so that we can explore this new relationship between us all. Jim has a few fantasies that he shared with me and  
I must confess, I have a few of my own.”

“What about…” Bones began, but was interrupted.

“We will address your abilities on a later date when James has returned. You have apologized to me and I accept it, when James comes home, you may make you apologies to him as well.”

“Fine.” Bones sagged in his seat. “This wasn’t what I expected to wake up to.” He laughed a little.

“I don’t think any of us expected this Leonard, but I know that it will turn out alright.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I have faith in the Captain’s ability to prevail, as I know you do as well.”

“Yea.” Bones shook his head, “How much longer do we have till we reach the base?”

Spock looked at his clock, “Less than an hour now.”

He tilted his head to the side, as if puzzled how so much time had passed them by without them realizing it.

Bones leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on Spock’s lips, he reached a hand out and gently clasped  
Spock’s hand. They both gasped at the feeling of pleasure coming from both ends. Bones had researched enough to know that a Vulcan’s hands were sensitive enough to be touch telepathic, Vulcan affection and kissage came from the hands, although it was clear that Spock had no adverse to kissing the old fashion way.

“Thank you for telling me all this Spock.” Bones said as he leaned back again and got up. Spock nodded and  
Bones noticed that his face held a flush of green on it, by the gods Spock was blushing! Bones smirked, “I hope you know that I’m going as well.”

When Spock looked like he would protest Bones continued quickly so that Spock wouldn’t have a chance to interrupt.

“I know I’m out of practice Spock, but I can assure you that I was a soldier for a while, on an elite team that specialized in going into situations that the most hardened soldier wouldn’t go into. My healing factor is almost simultaneous, you can slit my throat right now and it would heal in seconds, although I wish you wouldn’t, only because I don’t want to be the one to explain to Jim why my blood is all over his room. I have advance speed and strength and while I haven’t used it in a combat situation for over thirty years now,  
I can assure you that I am battle ready and will do whatever is necessary to bring Jim home. I’ve killed before Spock and I have no problem doing it once more if it means that Jim will come home safe and sound.”

Bones spoke in a stern voice, in the hopes that Spock will realize the seriousness of the situation. “There is also the possibility that the monsters have somehow survived all these years on base. They’d be starved, of that I can guarantee you, so the less humans you send in there, the better Spock. I will go alone.”

“I’m sorry Doctor, but I can’t send you by yourself.” Spock said blandly. “I won’t argue that your expertise with this kind of situation would be helpful, but I can’t let you go in without backup. I understand the risk of contamination, so I will inform all those on security of the dangers and allow any who want to stay behind to do so.”

Bones grumbled a bit, but agreed. As long as the men knew what they were getting into his conscious won’t bother him too much if they lost lives, something that Bones was sure to happen, no matter how much he wished it wouldn’t be so. Even if the monsters had all died out and the base was secure, they still had to deal with whatever thugs the UAC had hired to bodyguard them.

“I also will be coming with you as well.” Spock said suddenly.

“What? No Spock.” Bones pointed a finger at Spock and glared. “This ship needs a Captain and I can’t have you walking into danger like that.”

“You don’t have a choice Leonard, I am going. You may need my abilities as well and there is a chance that because of my heritage I won’t be able to get infected if there are monsters still there.”

Bones growled, but he knew that Spock had a point. “Damn hobgoblin.”

“Overemotional ape.”

Bones was startled into a laugh; he was going to reply back with a friendly insult when Spock’s communicator suddenly came to life.

“Sir? We’ve arrived; I’m picking up several ships in the area so we’re orbiting some distance away from the base.”

“Good work Lieutenant.” Spock said, “Arrange for the best members of the security officers into the transporter room along with several extra phasers, I’m going with the rescue team so your acting Captain as of now until Jim is back with us.”

“Begging your pardon, but shouldn’t I go with you sir?” Sulu asked, “I’m also a weapon specialist and you may need me.”

“Negative Lieutenant, I need you to take care of the Captain’s ship while we go bring him back. If anything should go wrong, I want you to get a hold of Admiral Pike and get somewhere safe.”

“Yes sir, and good luck.”

“Thank you Lieutenant.” Spock cut the connection and shared a meaningful look with Bones, it was time for them to retrieve their Captain.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the transporter, they made a quick stop at Bones’ room for him to grab his emergency travel medical kit that was especially made for Jim, it had all the hypos that he wasn’t allergic to and was heavy in pain killers and bandages.

Bones also changed into something a little more easier to move into, a tight black shirt and combat pants that allowed freedom of movement and helped him to blend into his surrounds more, better then the bright blue shirt at least. He also put on a pair of boots that had Spock’s eyebrows rising high on his brow, a slight blush of green on his cheeks had Bones smirking as well. The boots were steel toed and heavy, great for stomping on things and squishing them flat.

In the transporter room stood five of the best that security had to offer, Bones looked over them critically, to their credit they didn’t question why he was there. Spock stepped forward and informed them of the mission, and even better, none of them asked to leave or be excused. All were ready to die for their  
Captain on a normal day, today wasn’t any different.

Spock took two stunners and handed one to Bones who tried to hold back the grimace that wanted to appear on his face, stunners weren’t real guns and were a sad parody. They worked well on humans he guessed, but for killing they sucked. Bones wished suddenly for his old gun back, the one that had his code-name encoded on it. Actually, now that he thought about it, that gun would still be back on the base, buried under rubble and bones.

Maybe he’d be able to find it, not that he thought it would still be in working condition, but it was the thought that counted.

“Set phasers to kill.” He ordered and bit back a groan as all the officers looked at Spock for instructions.

“Do as the doctor says, he is more knowledgeable in this area.”

There were a few snickers of disbelief, but they all did as ordered, small blessings.

Bones nodded at Scotty as he passed by and got onto the transporter.

“You know where your dropping us Scotty?” Bones asked dryly.

Scotty just smirked, “Ah doc, m’ wife told me everything a lil’ while ago. I’m going to beam you all into the Arc room, it’s the only place I can beam you that’s big enough. I’m not sure what’s there though so you be careful you hear? And bring the Cap back! He owes me a bottle of ale!”

Bones chuckled, “Will do Scotty.”

The rest of the group walked up to the transporter and got into positions.

“Beaming in five – four – thee – two – one!” Scotty counted down before pushing the button that would send them to Olduvai, the last place that Bones ever expected to go to again, the last place he wanted to go too.

Bones hated the transporter, he really did, but it was effective and hopefully gave them the element of surprise. If they were lucky, then the UAC wouldn’t yet know of their arrival.

Not that Bones had that kind of luck.

“Ah Sergeant Grimm, how kind of you to join us.”

Bones only got a second to contemplate how utterly fucked up everything had gone before he blacked out by a well aimed tranq dart.

 

\---

 

When he came too Bones found himself strapped onto an operating table. He tried to get up, but the restraints holding him were made from some kind of metal that he was unfamiliar with. They held him down tightly and he was still woozy enough that he couldn’t use his full strength.

“Ah you’re awake, good, good.” A mousy man suddenly appeared near his head.

Bones glared at him and bared his teeth dangerously. “What the hell did you do?”

“Don’t be such a wet blanket Grimm.” The mousy man astonished. Bones stared at the obvious deranged man.

“I’ll ask again, what the hell did you do with my crew?!”

The man sighed and patted Bones head, like as if he was an unruly child. Bones growled a warning, but the man ignored it.

“I’ve wanted to meet you for years Grimm, my name is Dr. George Willits, you were my granddad and father’s obsession. They were both scientists that worked with UAC and my great-grandfather even worked with the original workers of Olduvai if you could believe it! The rest of what was left of UAC writes you off as dead long ago, but my family knew better! They were shunned because of their belief that you lived and walked in the land of the living, but we knew…we didn’t care what those idiots thought of us and look at where we are now! Chromosome 24…the gods’ blood.”

“Gods blood?! Are you insane? Wait; don’t answer that, the answers obvious.” Bones snarled.

Dr. Willits glared at him, his beady eyes held more than a glint of madness in them.

“You should be more polite Dr. Grimm. After all you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your companions now do you?”

Bones stopped glaring and stared uncomprehending for a moment at the smug looking man then resumed glaring.

“Where are they?”

“Safe I assure you. The Vulcan and his buddies have joined Kirk in our holding cells. They won’t come to harm as long as you cooperate with us.”

“And just how should I cooperate?” Bones sagged against his restraints, deciding that he’d conserve his strength until the moment he absolutely needed it.

“I wasn’t sure if my Intel was correct, but it looks like I hit the jackpot. My grandfather was able to find an old aged photo of you back before you were injected with the chromosome. It took years, but I was finally able to match it up with your face, good thing you don’t change, huh?” Dr. Willits chuckled darkly, “I was sure that kidnapping Captain Kirk would get you to come here and apparently I was correct, although I had miscalculated. I didn’t expect you to bring that…half-breed trash with you.” The doctor sneered in disgust; Bones bristled at the insult towards Spock. “No matter though. Everything else is going to plan.”

“And what is the plan?” Bones couldn’t help but ask, unless this guy was really as stupid as he looked he won’t tell Bones a thing.

“Oh?” Dr. Willits smiled, it was an ugly thing, that smile. “Well, you see, we need you. Your blood. The late Dr. Grimm, your twin I believe? She destroyed all the research data for chromosome 24 before you two left here.”

“Here…we’re in Olduvai aren’t we?” Bones asked, groaning as he took in the sadist grin that told him that he was right on the money. “Is this place still contaminated?”

“No.”

Dr. Willits actually looked disappointed, the crazed fucker.

“All the subjects are long dead and we can’t seem to replicate their blood since its long dried out and fossilized. That’s why we need you!”

“So, what? Jim was bait? What about him being a descendent from Carmack?”

Dr. Willits smirked, “You didn’t think we planted that idea do you? Everything up until now, the catching of the embezzlers, the lowly intern who found out about it, the made up BS story that my agents fed your superiors, it was all a ruse, to get you here.”

“Mother-fucking-asshole!” Bones snarled, he couldn’t help but try to break his restraints again, no dice.

“Language John!” Dr. Willits astonished gleefully.

“We’ve already taken several samples of your blood. All we need to do now is inject them into human subjects. Then the real fun beginnings.”

“You’re crazy.” Bones breathed, “Do you know what that’ll do!?”

“Of course I know-! It will make us Gods! They will learn - those Starfleet bastards and those freaks that call themselves Vulcans will learn the true meaning of power!”

Bones shook his head in disbelief; Doctor Willits was completely out of his mind.

“Now if you will excuse me Johnny boy.” Willits petted his head like he was a dog, Bones tried to move away, but Willits just grabbed the locks and yanked hard. Bones howled for a moment at the burning pain in his scalp before Willits let go. “I have to go inject the worthy with Godhood, including myself. Maybe I’ll even inject your beloved Captain?”

Bones yelled at the man’s retreating back, but it did little good. Bones glared at the closed door and took in the rest of his surroundings; he hadn’t had a chance to look around since the doctor had taken up most of his attention.

At least it looked like Jim was now with Spock and if he could trust the doctors word, which he didn’t, then they were fine for now. Not that that will last long with infected running around eating each other.

He still had time though, if he could get out of here and find the others and find a way to communicate with the Enterprise and get beamed back they could just blow this entire place up to pieces. Blow it up so that nothing survives expect a huge crater.

As Bones looked around him he realized that he was in the medical room that he’d been in the last he’d been on Mars. It was cleaner then they had left it. Destroyer’s and Portman’s body were gone and he would bet that Goat’s was also gone. They more than likely dumped the bones of his comrades outside the base, probably didn’t even give them a proper funeral, bastards.

Bones looked at the restraints holding him down, both his ankles and wrists were wrapped up tightly, but that wasn’t what got his attention, it was the needle in the inside of his elbow that had him cursing.

It wasn’t that the restraints were exceptional; they were drugging his body continuously. It was no wonder he felt weak and couldn’t break the restraints that tied him down.

Bones lift his head and tried to reach to needle with his teeth, he could feel his muscles burn at the unusual stretch and bones pop out of place, still he strained forward until he was bent in half, his shoulders dislocated and skin ripped.

His bloody teeth finally grasped the needle and he yanked as hard as he could, skin ripped and blood poured out as the vein tore.

He leaned back down and panted for breath, the amount of pain was something he hadn’t felt in a long while, but soon enough he could feel the sting of healing bone and tissue.

Not a moment later, his strength came back and he ripped out the restraints as if they were tissue paper. He heaved himself up from the operating table and looked around, making sure no one had come in unexpectedly and saw that or if there were security cameras in place and now guards would run down and try to restrain him.

Thankfully, after a moment when everything stayed quiet, Bones let out a breath of relief. He stretched his arms out and worked out the small kinks that were trying to form in his joints.

Walking towards a nearby table he picked up a rag and used it to wipe away most of the blood that he’d spilt, once done with that he picked up several large scalpel knifes that laid on the same table and put them in his pockets, he didn’t have his phaser anymore, so he would need whatever he could take.

He crept from the room, shivering as the nano wall opened up under his command, towards where he hoped the prisoners were being held. He didn’t have time to deal with the doc, he had to get Jim, Spock and the rest of the crew the hell out of here before all hell broke loose.

He didn’t encounter anyone in the hallways, which worried him, but he tried to push it away and focus on rescuing the others, then he could worry about other things.

He did take out one of the scalpels though and moved into a defensive stance whenever he turned a corner though, no need to become lax just because he hadn’t been caught yet.

It didn’t take him long since the buildings blueprints were burned into his memory to find the room he’d been looking for.

The room that Destroyer had died in when he took one of those sonuvabitches with him.

He opened the door as quietly as he could, though apparently not silent enough since Jim began to curse and shout abuse from the hole in the floor.

Bones smirked at some of the more creative insults, Jim was always imaginative like that, especially when he got inspired, which strangely, being kidnapped gave him the best ideas for insults.

“Geeze Jim if that’s how you really feel…” Bones smirked and walked towards the hole so the people down there could see him.

“Bones?! Is that you? Oh you bastard, thank god you alive!” Jim’s face was bruised up as hell, but it looked like Spock had tended the worse of it, Jim practically beamed up at him.

“Hold on kid, I’ll get you all out.” He called out and looked around the room for a moment.

“Be careful doctor, the walls are electrified.” Spock called out as Bones walked towards the command panel that controlled the pit’s controls.

“Yea, I already knew that.” Bones said absently as he fiddled around with the controls, he turned off the electricity and made the steps that came out of the wall pull out.

“Thanks doc!” One of the security officers called out.

“Hurry up, we need to contact Scotty as quickly as we can and get the fuck out of here. They took my blood and they’re crazed. Things are going to get apeshit around here very quickly if we don’t get the hell out of here.”

As if in response to his comment the distant roar of a monstrous animal echoed down from the open doorway.

Most of the crewmembers were already out of the pit, but everyone stopped moving as soon as the sound echoed. The deep stench of fear grew in the room and one of the security officers whimpered, not that Bones blamed them, that roar had sent chills up his spine as well.

“Move it!” Bones ordered and the rest of the Enterprise crew scrambled up the steps.

Jim and Spock made their way over to him, Jim limping slightly and using Spock to help him walk. Bones cursed silently when he saw that, they couldn’t afford to be that injured, especially if they were now dealing with fucked up shitheads jacked up on his blood.

He turned to Spock, “How much did you tell them?” By them, he meant Jim, but he knew that Spock could read between the lines.

“Everything, it seemed like a good idea at the time, since it was unclear of what our situation would evolve into.” Spock said unapologetic and damn him, but he was right.

“Fine…that’s fine.” He didn’t look at Jim as he ordered the officers to find any weapons that they could, it looked like Willits’s guards had dumped their shit nearby next to a wall.

Neither Spock or Jim tried to take control of the situation, they both seemed willing to let Bones roll with it, which unnerved him and made him feel grateful at the same time.

Luckily, this time the officers snapped to duty and did as they asked without any prompts from Spock or Jim.

Once he was sure everyone had a phaser or at least one of the scalpels that he had snatched up he made the way towards the door.

“Keep low and quiet.” He ordered softly. “Spock get behind me with Jim, the rest of you fan out around them.  
We keep the Captain alive at all costs.”

The grim and determine faces told him that they read his order loud and clear and were willing to obey.

They made their way towards the arc room, Bones figured that maybe some of the communicates stations still worked there and if not, well…one of the security officers whispered to the rest of them that he had dropped his communicator next to a pile of rocks when they had been subdued. Bones doubted the idiots had looked for it, so if they could retrieve it and call up Scotty they could get the hell off this rock.

“Hey Bones?” Jim whispered softly. Bones tensed up and kept his face forward so that he wasn’t tempted to look at Jim, he couldn’t bear to see the look of betrayal on his friend’s face, he really couldn’t.

“What Jim?”

Jim was silent for a moment before he continued to whisper, Bones couldn’t place his voice, couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad, it was kind of monotonous actually.

“I know we’ve got a lot to talk about and don’t think you’re off the hook mister about the whole secret identity thing, but…I still love you.” Suddenly Bones could hear the emotions that Jim was trying to suppress, there was hurt and anger like he had expected there to be, but there was also awe and…dare he say it, affection?

Bones stumbled for a moment then righted himself, his back was tensed up and he really didn’t want to know what kind of expression his face was giving off. The other officers were politely ignoring them.

“We both love you, doctor.” Spock spoke up, his voice a little louder then Jim’s was, but no less true.

Jim chuckled as Bones stumbled once again, this time he turned his head to glare at them.

Jim was smirking cheekily at him, his bright blue eyes twinkling gently and Spock’s eyes were just as gentle.

Bones coughed, embarrassed, but oddly happy by their causal, though no-less heartfelt admittance of their feelings for him.

“Love you as well hobgoblin, you too Jim.” He acknowledged, not caring who heard him right now, he’d put the fear of god in the officers later to make sure they didn’t spread any rumors later.

“Doesn’t mean we’re not going to spank you for this though.” Jim pointed out, cheerfully helpful. Spock snorted when one of the officers choked at the sudden comment from their commanding officer.

Bones raised an eyebrow at Jim, as if daring him to even try.

Before anyone could continue the conversation another loud roar tore down the hallway, this time occupied by  
several smaller howls, hungry and insane wails lit up the air, not ceasing this time at all. In fact they were getting even louder, as if coming towards them.

“Shit.” Bones swore and raised his phaser, he looked around wildly for a moment as everyone else got into defensive moves.

He hisses as he sees a door on the opposite wall, it was the freaking armory and wasn’t that a beautiful sight. He charged towards it and presses the door open.

“Get the fuck in here.” He ordered, they all follow him obediently, although the continuing growls of the mutated beasts might have something to do with how fast they got in.

Once everyone was inside Bones shut the door, once it was as secure as it was going to get Bones turned around and looked at the racks of retro guns, real motherfucking guns with real bullets.

“Fucking A.” He smirked and dropped his stunner in a surprised officers’ hand. He walked forward and picked up an Assault rifle, much like his old one actually.

“Get a gun and make sure it’s packing.” He ordered. The others were wary of the bullet weapons, but they obeyed him, setting down the phasers on a table and picking up pistols and machine guns.

There had been one class at the academy that had taught how to use projectile weaponry, not many took it, but it was mandatory for those on the security track.

Spock took two magnums while Jim picked up a sub-machine gun. Both had grim looks on their faces, as if the military guns suddenly made the situation that much more real.

“Wow, do you think these things will work?” Jim asked, skeptical of the old hardware.

Bones cocked his gun and picked up a small caliber pistol, he took off the safety and aimed at a nearby wall and shot a hole in the steel frame.

The noise was just as loud as he remembered, what he hadn’t expected was the feeling of completeness that overtook him when he fired the shot.

“Jesus Christ Bones!” Jim swore as they all jumped. “What the fuck did you do that for?!”

Bones shrugged, “Had to see if it would work, now come on. They would have heard that.”

Jim mumbled some choice words, but they all filed out of the room. The howls were still loud, but they seemed to be coming from another part of the complex at the moment. Bones strained to hear and felt a rush of coldness down his back as he caught the faint echo of screams, human and scared.

“Shit, apparently he didn’t inject everyone. They’re attacking whoever’s left.”

“Damn.” Jim whispered anger clear in his voice. “That sick son of a bitch! Why is he doing this anyway?”

“He thinks he’ll become some kind of god or some shit.” Bones snarled dismissively and lead them down another hallway; all of them had the guns out and safeties off.

It came later, and sooner than Bones had predicted, it had been too much to hope that they would be able to make it through the complex unmolested and intact.

“Shit! Get down!” Bones shouted as one of the infected came running down the hallway in front of them, this one wasn’t fully transformed yet, it still looked more humanoid then the more fully mutated monsters.

As everyone hit the deck Bones fired shot after shot at the incoming infected, it fell a few feet away from them, dead and bleeding from a hole in its head and heart.

The sounds of the others began to get louder as they reacted to the sound of gunfire, Bones didn’t hear anymore human screams so it was a safe bet that everyone else was already dead.

“Hurry up!” He called to the others as they ran down the corridor, there wasn’t any point in trying to sneak away anymore, they had been found.

More infected came from other hallways, gunfire light the air as Bones and the others began to shoot as soon as they got in their sights.

“Head and heart!” He shouted as he plowed another one, “Shit how many are there?!”

They were close to the arc room when they had their first casualty.

Bones should have seen it coming, but one of the officers had begun to lag behind the rest, they didn’t notice until the last second when one of the more mutinous infected launched itself at the officer’s back and clawed its way into the man’s spine.

Bones bit back a curse and tired to shot the monster off of him, but the man was already dead by the time he had killed the creature.

“Move on.” He ordered tensely. For a moment it looked like the other officers were going to protest.

“Do as he says.” Jim hissed out, pissed off and grieving as all hell as he stared down at the corpse of one of his loyal officers. They didn’t have the time or luxury to take the body with them, which frustrated everyone.

For Bones, it was like watching his team die all over again.

They managed to make it to the room without incident after that, one of the officers had pocketed a few extra clips so they had plenty of bullets to kill all the mother fuckers that tried to attack them.

The arc room was empty as far as Bones could tell.

“Okay, find the communicator if you can, I’m going to see if I can find some way to hail the Enterprise from one of these stations.” He pointed at one of the terminals. “Make sure to keep your eyes open, there’s no telling how many more of those monsters are out there.”

Not to mention that Bones had noticed that Dr. Willits wasn’t among those they had shot and killed, the fucker might still be around, waiting for them to drop their guard and attack.

Jim and Spock stayed nearby after Bones had glared at them when they made a move to go help. The glare they sent back was tinted with amusement though, so Bones didn’t feel too badly about ordering them to stay put, at least he’d done it nonverbally.

Bones tried to turn on the terminal but it didn’t seem to want to cooperate, he hit it a few times and then let Spock take over.

“Rrrreeeeeaaapppeeerrr!!!”

Bones’s head snapped up and he scrambled for his gun that he had placed down.

“Fucking-!”

The former Doctor George Willits roared from above them, his body was almost fully mutated; his body was twice as big as he used to be, not to mention that his skin was ripped and stretched out over taunt muscles.  
There were obvious signs of mutation, rips and bumps of skin stood out, pulsing as if to a heartbeat, the mutation had four eyes and no nose, and one mother fucking huge mouth filled with enough teeth to make a great white shark envious.

It was still mostly humanoid though, it had two arms and two legs, but that was where it stopped being human.

Everyone began firing at once, but the fucker was fast. He avoided almost all the bullets and charged down on one of the officers.

His scream was cut short very quickly, Bones roared in fury and begun to move forward, shooting shot after shot.

“Get Scotty on the line now!!” He roared and threw down his gun when it became useless.

“BONES!” Jim screamed after him as Bones…no, Reaper charged at the monster that was already moving toward another of the crew members.

Reaper ignored Jim’s screams to come back and attacked quickly from behind. Willits roared in pain as Reaper jabbed him in the neck with one of the knives he had on him, the beast bucked and roared its displeasure as it tried to get Reaper off its back, but he held on stubbornly and jabbed it again, this time in one of its eyes. The eyeball exploded in a sickly display of eye jelly, but the knife became lodged in the socket so  
Reaper had to give it up as a lost cause and try to cause damage some other way.

Reaper had to jump off though when it tried to roll onto its back in trying to squish him. He couldn’t spare even a glance to see what the others were doing, though he could hear the yells and screams as more infected arrived on the scene. Te needed to put Willits down quickly so he could help them.

Reaper let out a roar of his own and met hit for hit as he fought the overgrown mutation. It was like he’d never left the RRTS, like he hadn’t spent the last few decades going soft. Several other small mutations tried to get in on the fight, but both Reaper and the monster that was Willits just batted them away, breaking their smaller bodies as easily as swatting a fly. They were concentrated on each other, it was like he was fighting Sarge all over again, though to be truthful, Sarge had been tougher to fight, mostly because he hadn’t lost his mind until the last moment.

He was a soldier here, he was John Grimm - he was the motherfucking Reaper and he didn’t take shit from anyone, especially not some pussy footed scientist that was off his meds!

Reaper roared one last time and ripped into Willits head, tearing it apart and effectively killing him.

“-nes! Bones!!” Jim’s voice finally penetrated the red haze that had over taken Reaper’s mind.

He looked up from where the corpse of the mutated Willits was lying. Jim had a new scrap on his forehead and his arm was bleeding from a particular bad cut. He was holding up a badly injured Spock, who seemed to have been pierced through the collarbone and leg, green blood was mixing with Jim’s red blood as the two held each other up.

Bodies of the mutated scientists and what could only be the hired mercenaries were scattered along the ground and it seemed like the rest of the security team were down as well. It looked like they had died trying to keep Jim and Spock as unharmed as possible.

Reaper sent up a pray for them all. “Did you find the communicator?”

Spock held up a small device that Reaper identified as one of the communicators the security officers used.

“Call Scotty and get us the fuck out of here. We’re blowing this shit hole up.” Reaper growled and picked up a gun off the ground. He went around and shot all the monsters in the head, and he found that he had to shoot one of the officers that had come with them when he saw that he had been bitten in the neck; he wouldn’t let him rise and mutate, so, with some regret, he double tapped him.

“Bones, Scotty’s going to beam us back.” Jim said wearily.

Reaper made his way back towards them after he was sure he’d shot everyone in the head and heart at least once.

He helped Jim and Spock stand by offering his shoulders to use as leverage.

“Look at you Bones…not a scratch on you.” Jim said softly.

Reaper swallowed hard, suddenly wishing that the fighting wasn’t over. Fighting he could handle, dealing with the aftermath wasn’t something he was particularly good at.

“Hey, stay awake Spock.” Jim coaxed at the wavering Vulcan.

Reaper couldn’t help but call himself an idiot, it was clear now that those two were lovers, and how he had ever just thought that they were still just friends was beyond him.

They were beamed back aboard the ship not a second later, medical staff already there to take care of the injured.

“That’s all?” Scotty asked softly as he saw that none of the security officers had survived to come back with them.

John closed his eyes and sighed, “Yea Scotty, that’s all.”

Chapel and several nurses came forth to help Jim and Spock to med bay, though John waved off them when they tried to make him go down as well, it was understandable, John was completely covered in blood, which either made him look like some kind of psycho killer or the walking dead, John found some small glimmer of humor as it was true on both accounts.

Jim looked like he wanted to protest him not coming along but before he could say anything he was hustled away. Spock was already unconscious, finally overcome by wounds that had been inflicted on him.

“I’m fine; you just get those two patched up. I need to talk with Sulu right now anyway, Scotty get ready, we’re blowing that shit-hole up.” John began to make his way toward the command deck, Scotty following behind, a large frown on his face, John didn’t know if he was frowning because of how few had come back and with an injured captain and commander or if he was frowning about all the blood that was spattered on John’s body.

Either way it didn’t matter right now, the only thing that mattered was blowing up that station until nothing was left.

“Shouldn’t we get the Captain’s permission first, or at least Spock’s?” Scotty didn’t look like he disagreed with the idea of blowing up a chunk of Mars into space; so John knew that he was only asking out of obligation.

 

“Right now those two are in med bay because of the fucked-up shit-heads that are down there. I think most of them are dead, but we can’t take the chance, and at the moment, Sulu’s in charge, and while I don’t want to get the guy in trouble, we need to blow it up sooner rather than later.”

“Right.” Scotty nodded.

They walked into the command deck where the rest of the alpha crew was waiting.

“The captain?” Sulu asked,

“Alive, as is Spock. The rest of the team didn’t make it.” John didn’t mean to be gruff or come off as unfeeling, but he couldn’t help but state things as matter-of-factly as possible. It was the habit of a soldier, not to bullshit around with sensitive feelings.

Sulu nodded as everyone relaxed, they were disheartened to hear of the deaths of five of their best men, but were relieved to hear that the captain and commander had made it back alive.

“And you? How are you doin-” Sulu was cut off quickly by John. No doubt concerned given John’s appearance.

“Sulu, I need your permission to blow Olduvai up.” John got down to business; he needed this done before he dealt with everything else.

Sulu frowned, but nodded sharply, “As acting Captain of the Enterprise, I order you to shoot the hell out of the research faculty. There are no civilians correct?”

“None.”

“Then have at it.”

John had never felt more fulfilled and empty at the same time as he proceeded to do just that.

 

\--

 

“Leonard?” Spock’s voice woke him up gently from the deep sleep that Bones was in. It was both the most peaceful and non-nightmarish sleep he had in years.  
He squirmed under the blankets for a moment before sighing and falling in an even deeper sleep.

“Bones? Come on Bonesy, wake up.” Jim’s voice was suddenly added to the odd dream that Bones seemed to be having.

“Go away Jim,” Bones mumbled into his pillow, “and take the goblin with you.”  
Silence surrounded him for several blissful moments before the sound of giggling woke him.

Bones cracked an eyelid up and realized that it wasn’t a dream and that Spock and Jim really were sitting on his bed watching him sleep.

“Shit.” He sat up and let the covers fall down, showing off his bare chest since he’d been too tired to dress down for bed.

It had been three days since the crazed shit with Willits had happened and Bones had stuck to his quarters for most of those three days, while both the Captain and Commander had been forced on bed rest, and was in fact, still suppose to be in med bay resting.

“Why are you out of medical?” Bones asked dryly.

Jim shrugged, “It was boring, so I had Spock bail us out.”

Bones turned an unimpressed glare at Spock, but he refused to be cowed under it.

“So Bones.” Jim suddenly reached forward and grasped his hand. “You haven’t visited me or Spock in med bay even once since we’ve been back.”

Bones turned his head away in shame, “I…wasn’t sure if I was welcome.”

Jim let out a deep sigh, “…Bones…John-”

Bones shook his head, “No, don’t call me that, I don’t—I’m not that man anymore. I like being Leonard McCoy,  
I like being your Bones. John is someone else that I’d rather not be anymore.”

“Alright then. Bones, come here.” Jim suddenly demanded. Bones turned to look at him, about to ask what he wanted but Jim shut him up rather effectively before he even open his mouth by pressing a firm but sweet kiss on his lips.

“Jim.” Bones breathed out, dazed and yet blissful at the same time.

Jim leaned back, a light flush darkening his skin a lovely pink color, “I won’t say I’m not angry Bones.  
Spock here filled me in on all the details that he could, but I want to hear the truth from you. Not now,”  
He said as Bones opened his mouth to confess. “but soon. There’s a lot of stuff we need to talk about and I’m sure that we need to make a good cover for you so that you don’t get shipped off to some government hole in the ground, but right now, I’d like to reassure myself that your both here and alive and all that planning I did with Spock to lure you into our bed hasn’t gone to waste.”

Bones laughed at that.

“Jim…Spock…thank you.” He whispered tenderly.

He had never imagined or even entertained the thought that this could have ever been possible. That not only would he have two loves, but that they would know what he was and accept him still. He knew that there was still a lot to talk about, not only about the relationship between them and his mutation, but about a whole mountain-full of other things. About how they had rescued Jim against Starfleet orders, even though they had  
Admiral Pike’s blessing; about just what the UAC had been trying to achieve and the possibility that it didn’t end with Willits death, that the UAC might still try to come after Bones now that they knew he was alive and still held the active chromosome 24 in his veins.

But that was for another day.

“It’s our pleasure doctor.” Spock said just as gently and reached out to bring Bones closer so that he was suddenly sandwich between him and Jim.

Not a bad place to be actually, not bad at all.

 

~The End~

**Author's Note:**

> Acknowledgments: First off I would like to bow down and thank my best friend Rune_Rvn for not only beta’d this but also cheerleading me to finish it. I would never have finished this without her help and encouragement.
> 
> I would like to thank chosenfire28 and Ixcacao for the wonderful art and fanmix, you two are beyond cool!
> 
> Also I would like to recognize writer_klmeri who inspired my obsession with ot3. Love your work!
> 
> This has been a wonder to write, thank you everyone at StarTrek Big Bang for making this possible. You’re all awesome!


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